Ex-chief of Supreme Court: Netanyahu asked me to speak with AG about plea deal

Former Supreme Court chief justice Aharon Barak says opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu asked him to speak with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit about a possible plea deal in the former premier’s graft trial.

“I won’t deny that when I reached out to Mandelblit, Benjamin Netanyahu’s contribution to the country was always on my mind. He was one of the greatest defenders of the Israeli justice system, until his trial,” Barak tells the Ynet news site.

Barak says that in recent months, senior figures in Netanyahu’s Likud party asked him to initiate talks with Mandelblit.

“I asked them if Netanyahu sent them, they denied it,” he says. “I recently received a personal appeal from Netanyahu and I decided not to remain indifferent.”

Barak also says any plea deal must include a demand that the court convict Netanyahu of “moral turpitude,” which would bar him from public office for seven years.