Netanyahu’s lawyers ask for ex-AG Mandelblit, who filed the charges, to testify in PM’s trial days before election

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyers have requested that the Jerusalem District Court have former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit testify as a defense witness in Netanyahu’s corruption trial from October 11 to October 22, just five days before the October 27 Knesset election.

Mandelblit was the attorney general who indicted Netanyahu on charges of fraud and breach of trust in all three of the cases against the prime minister, and one charge of bribery in one of those cases.

Netanyahu has in the past accused Mandelblit of having indicted him in order to have him removed from office, which Mandelblit has denied.

The move may be a tactic by Netanyahu to shift pre-election national attention to his trial by having his defense team assail Mandelblit in court over his decision to file the indictment.