Court to limit Netanyahu questioning by defense to 14 more sessions

The Jerusalem District Court decides that the primary questioning of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his defense attorney for all the charges against him will be limited to another 14 sessions.

The court says it is making the decision “in light of the amount of time the [prime minister’s] testimony has taken until now,” with Netanyahu having testified on only 11 occasions so far, despite starting to give testimony on December 10, due to the prime minister’s leadership responsibilities, his prostate removal surgery, and other scheduling problems.

In court, the judges have tried repeatedly to get Netanyahu’s defense attorney, Amit Hadad, to speed up his questioning, reduce repetitious questioning, and reduce the amount of time he dwells on certain specifics of the cases, but both Hadad and Netanyahu have refused.

Hadad said last week he would need another 24 sessions to complete his primary questioning of the prime minister, with the prosecution saying they would need three times as many hearings for cross examination, as the total number of defense hearings, which would mean more than 120 further hearings.

The court also orders Netanyahu’s defense team to provide it with a list of other defense witnesses who could testify once a week by February 26, if the court is to agree to Netanyahu’s request that he testify only twice a week, and not three times.

That is, the court wishes to hold hearings once a week with other defense witnesses, if it is to agree to reduce Netanyahu’s testimony to twice a week.

The State Attorney’s Office, which is strongly opposed to reducing the number of hearings for Netanyahu, will respond and the court will then make a decision.

Netanyahu will need to testify three times a week until that decision is made.