Netanyahu asks High Court for extension in filing affidavit in response to Shin Bet chief

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requests that the High Court of Justice grant him an extension until Sunday to submit an affidavit in response to claims made by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar in a filing earlier this week.

The court’s deadline for submitting the affidavit is today.

Bar himself requested on Sunday a one-day delay in submitting his affidavit, which the court begrudgingly approved while scolding him for the late timing of his request.

Netanyahu’s lawyers assert in their request that Bar filed the confidential part of his affidavit after the deadline given to him, and that the prime minister should therefore get an extension since he too received Bar’s submission late.

The prime minister’s attorneys add that the lawyer preparing the affidavit, Zion Amir, is currently in Poland on the March of the Living event there for Holocaust Remembrance Day and will only return to Israel tomorrow.

In Bar’s affidavit, he accused Netanyahu of pressuring him to help the prime minister postpone his testimony in his criminal trial, against Bar’s professional opinion, and of asking him to use the Shin Bet to act against anti-government activists involved in legitimate political protest. Bar also alleged that it was “made clear to him” that he was expected to be loyal to the government even if it defies a High Court of Justice ruling.