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Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Likud MK Bitan takes stand in bribery trial, proclaims innocence
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Four years after being indicted for allegedly taking hundreds of thousands of shekels in bribes, Likud MK David Bitan is taking the stand at the Central District Court in Lod, telling the court that he will prove his innocence.
Bitan, who currently chairs the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, was indicted in August 2021 on charges of bribery, money laundering and tax offenses, as well as fraud and breach of trust, over accusations he pocketed some NIS 715,000 ($220,000) in bribes while serving in public office.
Addressing the court, Bitan says he “did not accept a bribe, I did not commit a breach of trust. Everything will be revealed in my testimony,” Channel 13 reports.
The charges date back to when Bitan was deputy mayor of Rishon Lezion, but also include his tenure as an MK after he was elected to the Knesset in 2013.
While he has denied wrongdoing, Bitan, a staunch ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stepped down from his role as coalition whip in 2017, shortly after news of the police investigation broke.
He is accused of receiving bribes from his business associate Moshe Yosef and from businessman Dror Glazer to help push through commercial developments. Both men have testified against him.
In 2022, Hatzi Hinam supermarket chain executive Lihi Sonek-Kuperli was convicted of bribing Bitan.
The Times of Israel Community.