State witness agreement with former Netanyahu aide Shlomo Filber to be annulled
After contradicting his testimony to police in court on several occasions, ex-Communications Ministry director may now face criminal prosecution
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The state prosecution announced on Monday that the state’s witness agreement with Shlomo Filber, a key witness in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial and a former Communications Ministry director, is likely to be annulled.
In a brief statement to the press, the State Attorney’s Office said that Filber was informed of the decision, which was made in accordance with the position of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, “after they were shown evidence indicating that he had violated the state’s witness agreement.”
Filber will now have a hearing with the State Attorney’s Office in order to defend himself, before a final decision is made.
If his claims are rejected, he could potentially be prosecuted himself on corruption charges for his part in the Bezeq-Walla affair, in which Netanyahu is charged with bribery and breach of trust over allegations he helped the Bezeq telecommunications giant obtain regulatory benefits, with Filber’s help, in return for favorable media coverage from the Walla news site whose owner, Shaul Elovitch, was also a controlling shareholder in Bezeq.
The decision to annul Filber’s state witness deal, pending the hearing, comes fully two years after he contradicted himself several times during testimony he gave in the Jerusalem District Court in Netanyahu’s trial.
Filber responded immediately to the announcement on X, saying, “I’m ready.”
During the investigation of the Bezeq-Walla affair, known as Case 4000, Filber turned state’s witness and gave testimony in which he incriminated himself and Netanyahu.
He initially told prosecutors that Netanyahu had encouraged him to slow the pace of gradual decreases in payments Bezeq’s competitors had to pay to use its telecommunications network, which was to Bezeq’s benefit.
He initially backed up that claim on the stand in March 2022. “‘Don’t eliminate the competition, but see if you can mitigate the prices,’ and he made a kind of hand movement,” Filber told the Jerusalem District Court, quoting Netanyahu.
But in later cross-examination he claimed that he had taken Netanyahu’s comments to mean that he should act as he saw fit and to ensure that there was competition in the telecommunications market.
Filber then reversed himself again in further testimony, and told the court that his original version of events, as given to the police and during his original court testimony, was accurate.
The shifting recollections of Filber — whose testimony was supposed to have been a central pillar in the allegations against Netanyahu in Case 4000 — frustrated the prosecution and harmed his credibility as a witness.
An investigator was appointed in June last year to examine whether Filber had violated his state’s witness deal, resulting in Monday’s decision to annul it.
Nevertheless, it is possible that the prosecutors will request that his original testimony be given priority over his testimony in court.
Filber has accused police interrogators of trying to manipulate him during their investigation of him.
In 2014, Israel launched a wholesale market reform to open up to competition the fixed-line telephony and internet market, dominated by Bezeq. According to the planned reform, as described by the indictment, by March 2017 Bezeq was supposed to lease out its infrastructure to telecom competitors such as Partner Communications Co. and Cellcom so they could provide competing fixed-line and internet services. With Filber overseeing the implementation, Bezeq reneged on its obligation.
Allegedly at the behest of Netanyahu, Filber started hindering the rollout of the reform. Bezeq was no longer threatened with fines for not adhering to the timetable for the reform. And, the charge sheet continues, neither did Filber approve the administrative orders necessary to advance the process — such as setting out the procedures by which the various telecom operators should interact with each other in sharing infrastructure.
As a result, the deployment of high-speed fiber-optic cables that would have given millions of Israelis infrastructure for cheaper and faster internet, and ensured the country’s capacity to maintain a global competitive edge, was significantly slowed.
Netanyahu’s trial in Case 4000 and two other corruption cases is ongoing; he denies any wrongdoing.
