In court, Netanyahu denies backing law that would have hobbled Israel Hayom for rival publisher

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he tried to halt, not advance, the so-called Israel Hayom law, as he testifies on the last day of direct questioning by his defense team in his criminal trial.

Netanyahu’s comments refer to legislation at the center of one of three cases he is charged in, in which he is accused of trying to formulate an illicit quid pro quo agreement with the publisher of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that would hobble rival tabloid Israel Hayom.

The indictment alleges that Yedioth publisher Arnon Mozes offered to scale back criticism of the prime minister in his newspaper in return for the passage of a law restricting the distribution of Israel Hayom, a free paper published by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson that is widely seen as reflective of Netanyahu’s views.

Such a law was advanced in Knesset during 2014 by the opposition Labor party but ultimately never passed.

“I wanted to offer him [Mozes] another solution, a different path, in order to get out of this maze, a softened law,” Netanyahu says of a meeting he held with Mozes in 2014, Channel 12 News reports.

“I wanted to prevent this law, which would have collapsed the coalition. I very much wanted that the coalition would not collapse,” he adds.

Netanyahu says that Mozes was trying to “conquer the Knesset,” and that MKs were afraid of negative coverage in Yedioth.