Defendants in Netanyahu graft case oppose further questioning of witness

Lawyers for Shaul and Iris Elovitch, defendants in former premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial on corruption charges, ask the Jerusalem District Court to prevent prosecutors from further questioning a witness in the case.

“Either the prosecution asks to stop the trial proceedings to conduct a complete investigation, with all the relevant investigatory material, or it refrains from exceptional one-sided moves,” the lawyers say, according to the Kan public broadcaster.

The request comes a day after prosecutors announced former Walla news editor Avi Alkalay had been summoned for questioning in the coming days regarding his correspondence with the website’s ex-CEO, Ilan Yeshua, who has been testifying in the case. The correspondence was found on Yeshua’s phone.

Alkalay too is to be called as a witness in the Bezeq-Walla alleged bribery case, known as Case 4000, in which which Netanyahu is alleged to have abused his powers when he served as both prime minister and communications minister from 2014 to 2017. Netanyahu is accused of illicitly and lucratively benefitting the business interests of Bezeq telecom’s controlling shareholder, Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for positive coverage on the Bezeq-owned Walla news website.

Netanyahu faces charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in the case, while Elovitch and his wife Iris were also charged with bribery. All three defendants deny wrongdoing.