Mandelblit rejects Netanyahu request for pre-indictment hearing to be broadcast live

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit rejects out of hand a request from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his pre-indictment hearing next week to be broadcast live.

“The request is unprecedented and without legal basis,” Mandelblit is quoted by Channel 13 news as writing to Netanyahu’s lawyer.

Mandelblit says the purpose of the hearing is not “to convince the public” and that Netanyahu’s lawyers would be better served preparing for the October 2-3 hearing.

“It would have been better if instead of raising futile requests that you well know will not be accepted, you fulfilled the mandatory instructions for the hearing process, in particular, sending in reasoned and detailed main arguments” in the case, the attorney general says.

He is referring to the submission by Netanyahu’s lawyers of a one-page document to Mandelblit instead of the expected comprehensive papers laying out the Likud party leader’s defense.

Earlier today, the High Court of Justice rejected a petition for the pre-indictment hearing to be scrapped on the grounds that the short document made a mockery of the legal process.

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