PM asks to testify in graft trial just once next week, citing post-surgery infection
Seeking another delay, Netanyahu’s attorney asserts premier’s recovery has been hampered by ‘weight’ of his work; prosecutors reject request, say medical records don’t justify it
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked to cut the number of days of testimony in his criminal trial next week from three to one, citing an infection he suffered while recovering from a prostate removal operation he underwent last month.
The prosecution opposed the request, saying Netanyahu’s medical records did not warrant it, but agreed to slightly shorten the hearings and to hold longer breaks between sessions.
Netanyahu’s attorney, Amit Hadad, asserted in the request that the premier’s recovery process demands he make a “gradual return” to full activity. Hadad also stated that the premier’s recovery was complicated by his work, given “the weight of the issues that come before the prime minister.”
The attorney said Netanyahu was advised by his doctors to “avoid continuous activity for more than three hours without rest over the next week,” as well as long rides and sitting or standing for extended periods. According to Hadad, this precludes the “ride to Tel Aviv for the hearings, and certainly a testimony that lasts several hours.”
Hearings in the trial, which is being adjudicated at the Jerusalem District Court, are currently being held at an underground facility in Tel Aviv after Netanyahu requested special security arrangements.
Instead of testifying on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Hadad called for a single day of testimony, “preferably for Tuesday or Wednesday (so the prime minister has longer stay to recover),” which would begin an hour earlier at 9 a.m. to make up for lost time.
The court initially postponed Netanyahu’s testimony by two weeks following the December 29 surgery, and then by an additional week after Hadad requested it be pushed back again due to “post-operative medical developments.”
The prosecution agreed to the two-week deferral “provided the doctors’ advice is implemented in full” — a thinly veiled jab at Netanyahu, who, over his doctors’ advice, traveled to the Knesset to cast a key vote on a crucial spending bill two days after his operation.
Netanyahu began his testimony on December 10, and was to testify for six hours each on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, until the end of the month.
However, he has testified only six times so far and failed to testify three times a week since he took the stand. The testimony’s start was delayed by eight days after Netanyahu’s legal team said it hadn’t had enough time to prepare, and the court canceled Netanyahu’s December 17 hearing due to his visit that day to Mount Hermon following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
While Netanyahu’s critics say he should suspend himself to attend to his legal matters, the premier and his allies have called on the court to defer the testimony to let him attend to matters of state, though the prime minister has previously opposed efforts to remove him from office on the grounds that his trial prevents him from fulfilling his role.
Netanyahu’s testimony began eight years after prosecutors launched an investigation into his dealings with media moguls and billionaire businessmen.
The premier is charged with several counts of fraud and breach of trust, and one count of bribery. He denies wrongdoing and has said the charges were fabricated by the state prosecution and police investigators in an attempted political coup. In court, Netanyahu has largely ridiculed the charges against him.
The premier’s testimony had already been deferred amid the war in Gaza, sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
