Dozens said to file complaints about Sara Netanyahu after TV report on alleged efforts to intimidate witnesses in PM’s trial

Dozens of people have reportedly filed police complaints about possible criminal acts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, following allegations by Channel 12 investigative program, Uvda, that she sought to intimidate a witness in her husband’s criminal trial, and have protesters harass the attorney general and deputy state attorney.

Harassing a witness and seeking to subvert the testimony of a witness are criminal offenses punishable by three years and seven years in prison respectively.

According to Uvda’s report, Sara Netanyahu instructed her husband’s secretary, Hanni Bleiweiss, to have Likud activists publish attacks on Hadas Klein, a key witness in one of the criminal cases against the prime minister, and to demonstrate outside her house ahead of, or during, her testimony in court, with the intention of intimidating and harassing her.

The report was supported by WhatsApp messages obtained by Uvda from the cell phone of Bleiweiss, who passed away in 2023.

Sara Netanyahu also gave instructions for similar protests and other forms of harassment to be conducted against then-attorney general Avichai Mandelblit and Deputy State Attorney Liat Ben Ari, Uvda alleged.

Among the vanguard of complainants against Sara Netanyahu is Labor MK Naama Lazimi who filed complaints to the attorney general, the head of the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 serious crime unit, State Attorney Amit Aisman calling for them to investigate.

Three of Lazimi’s parliamentary aides also filed complaints in person at the Lev Tel Aviv Police Station this morning, and created a WhatsApp group, giving instructions to members on how to file such police complaints online.

Hundreds of people have now joined the group. Lazimi claims dozens of people had filed complaints as of this afternoon.

“Sara Netanyahu must be investigated,” she declares on Twitter.

“In a country where the police function properly, she would have been summoned for questioning immediately after the investigation was broadcast. In today’s Israel, we will have to help this happen.”

And the Movement for Integrity in Government (Telem), a good governance watchdog group, sends a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara calling on her to open an investigation into Sara Netanyahu.

“Sara Netanyahu’s actions raise serious suspicion of criminal offenses of subverting testimony, or alternatively, harassment of a witness (or solicitation to harass a witness), offenses under Sections 246 and 249 of the Penal Code, and possibly even the offense of obstruction of justice under Section 244 of the Penal Code, in relation to the actions against the then attorney general and state attorney [official] Liat Ben Ari,” Telem writes in its letter to the attorney general.