From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 12, 2026
Defense, prosecution clash at Netanyahu trial over claim prosecution misled former AG
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit is giving testimony for the second day in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, with defense attorney Amit Hadad continuing his effort to try to expose ostensible misconduct by state prosecutors in their investigation of the premier.
Hadad accuses prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh of having deliberately misled Mandelblit, claiming the prosecution wrongly dated documents relevant to the investigation.
Tirosh accuses Hadad of leading a personal attack on her, with Hadad retorting, “I understand the distress, this is the case of her life,” and Tirosh responding with a raised voice: “My life is my family. We prosecutors are doing our job.”
Judge Rivka Feldman-Friedman decides to halt the proceedings and calls the attorneys into her office.
Earlier, Mandelblit said he did not believe the prosecutors from the State Attorney’s Office deliberately deceived him.
“The State Attorney’s Office was my long arm, and I would be very surprised if that were the case. I have complete faith in the prosecution, including the people sitting here,” he said.
He added: “Since this is being repeated again and again, this hypothesis which is being repeatedly presented to me…. that the State Attorney’s Office hid information from the attorney general. I would be very surprised if that would turn out to be true. I am not familiar with a situation in which they hid things from me. It could be, but I am still not convinced.”
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