Court again rejects request to cut hearings in Netanyahu trial from 4 to 3 per week

The Jerusalem District Court rejects a second request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyers to hold just three hearings a week, and not four, saying that the premier’s defense team did not raise any substantively new arguments from the first time the court decided to add an extra hearing every week, back in September.

The court also points out that one of the judges on the three-member panel hearing the case will need to retire in the not-too-distant future, necessitating an increase in pace to the trial which is already in its sixth year.

The court also rejects the defense team’s claims that it cannot represent Netanyahu four times a week due to the needs of other clients and their court schedules, telling the prime minister’s lawyers that they had two months to prepare for the increased number of hearings.

The judges emphasize that they will continue to consider individual requests to delay or cancel hearings should the need arise due to Netanyahu’s various needs, as they have done regularly throughout his testimony.

And the court rejects the possibility that the defense team could quit as Netanyahu’s lawyers, saying that doing so would “do fundamental harm” to the ability to conduct the trial properly.

All the requests are therefore rejected, and the schedule for Netanyahu’s trial will be four hearings a week, beginning next week, with the prime minister testifying at three hearings, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.