From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Regev denounces ‘political’ trial of PM which will ‘harm security of the state’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
“The court had to humiliate the prime minister, humiliate the State of Israel and harm the security of the state,” Transportation Minister Miri Regev tells reporters outside the courthouse where Benjamin Netanyahu is set to testify in his ongoing corruption trial.
“What would happen if his testimony were pushed off for a few months?” she asks, arguing that every officer or NCO who is in the reserves and asks to postpone a trial can do so.
This is a “political” trial against the prime minister, she asserts.
The case against Netanyahu will collapse like a “house of cards,” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi declares.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming to the hearing today not as a defendant, but as an accuser. We are witnessing the collapse of the cases one by one, even before a single defense witness has taken the stand,” he says.
“The decision to force the prime minister of Israel to testify no less than three days a week in the midst of a war is unbearable. When the judges want to go to a Bar Association party in Eilat there is no problem canceling hearings,” but not “when the people of Israel need their prime minister to bring about complete victory and return the hostages home,” Karhi says.
“Since the investigations began, the people have proven time and time again at the ballot box that they believe in the prime minister and support him, and not even persecution and the fabrication of cases will change that,” he adds.
