Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicts the Jerusalem District Court will postpone the evidentiary stage of his corruption trial until after the March 23 elections, calling the allegations against him “fabricated.”
“I think everyone knows the cases against me are fabricated. But we learned today that they’re not even completed fabrications. Lots of things are missing, even from the prosecution’s point of view,” he says at a press conference in Jerusalem alongside the Greek prime minister.
“It doesn’t seem to me that they’ll hurry [in court] to the evidentiary stage before the elections. In any case, that would be seen — even if that’s not the intention — as crude intervention in the elections,” he adds.
“If that happens, I’m telling you we’ll win [the elections] big time. But since we’re going to win [the elections] anyway, we don’t need to win that way. We don’t need it. [The timing of the next phase of the trial] needs to be handled with common sense, and I expect that will be the case.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his corruption trial hearing at the Jerusalem District Court, February 8, 2021. (Reuven Castro/Pool)
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 8, 2021
