Netanyahu’s legal team requests new 15-day postponement of his court testimony
Lawyers say despite efforts made by PM since rejection of last request, he has not been able to adequately prepare for session due to war, asks for testimony to begin Dec. 17
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal team on Sunday requested a new, 15-day postponement of the beginning of his testimony in court in his ongoing criminal trial, saying that despite their best efforts, the prime minister and his defense attorneys will not be prepared by the scheduled date of December 2.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu’s defense team requested a 10-week delay, but the court rejected the request, saying it had given him five months to prepare when it originally scheduled the date back in July.
Netanyahu’s lawyers said that since the court rejected that request on November 13, and even in the months before that, they and the prime minister had made “a supreme effort” to prepare for his giving testimony, including daily meetings at very late hours.
“Despite this supreme effort, the defense is not prepared, and will not be able to meet the goal of being prepared, for beginning the defense by December 2,” Netanyahu’s defense team said.
His lawyers also said that preparations were further encumbered by the decision by the International Criminal Court on Thursday to issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
They therefore requested that Netanyahu begin his testimony on December 17. This testimony is expected to last several hours a day and take weeks to complete.
In the previous request, defense lawyers had claimed that the security situation, due to the ongoing war on several fronts, had made it impossible to properly prepare the prime minister for testifying in court.
Prosecutors opposed the request, declaring that it was in the public interest for the trial to proceed to a conclusion as quickly as possible.
The prime minister has been charged with fraud and breach of trust in two cases and bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in a third. He was indicted almost five years ago, in January 2020, and the trial began in May of that year.
Netanyahu has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has claimed that the charges were fabricated in a witch hunt led by the police and state prosecution.
Netanyahu has so far not taken the stand, though he has appeared in court on a handful of occasions. As the main defendant, Netanyahu is scheduled to be the first person to face cross-examination as the defense presents its witnesses in the three cases.
The trial has faced criticism over the slow pace of proceedings. As things stand, the proceedings, including potential appeals, have been seen as unlikely to end before 2028-2029.
