Mandelblit urged to scrap Netanyahu hearing and proceed with indictments

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel on Tuesday petitioned Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to scrap a pre-indictment hearing for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a series of corruption cases, saying he had effectively waived his right by making a mockery of the process.

According to the Haaretz daily, the request came after Netanyahu’s lawyers last week submitted a one-page document to Mandelblit, instead of the expected comprehensive papers laying out the Likud leader’s defense.

Netanyahu is scheduled to appear before Mandelblit on October 2 to make his case ahead of a final decision by the attorney general on whether to indict him. In February, Mandelblit announced his intention to indict Netanyahu, pending the hearing, on charges of fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases, as well as bribery in one on them.

“The suspect Netanyahu should be viewed as if he has relinquished his right to a hearing,” wrote the Movement for Quality Government, a nonprofit dedicated principally to fighting corruption in government.

The group said Netanyahu’s lawyer’s scant response was just another delaying tactic.

The lawyers chose to file a defense document that includes only “a general denial of the charges he faces in a one page document that does not provide any explanations or relate to the evidence that was given to the prime minister’s lawyers,” the statement said.

Netanyahu’s lawyers have been accused of engaging in delay tactics throughout the process.

The hearing was originally scheduled for June, but in May Mandelblit agreed to delay it by three months.

Netanyahu’s attorneys had asked the attorney general for a full-year delay, arguing that the scope of the documents was too large to review in three months. Mandelblit refused that request.

The prime minister’s attorneys were granted that the case files not be handed over prior to the April 9 national election in order to prevent information from leaking to the media and affecting the vote.

But after the election, the lawyers refrained for another month from collecting the material, citing a dispute over their fees.

Netanyahu has strenuously denied the allegations against him and claimed the investigations are part of a witch hunt by political rivals, the media, the police and state prosecutors to force him from office.

His hearing with Mandelblit is set to begin on the same day as the deadline for President Reuven Rivlin to task a lawmaker with assembling a government.

Netanyahu suffered a major setback in the September 17 elections when he and his political allies failed to win a majority needed to form a government.

It is widely believed that had Netanyahu won the election with a clear majority, he would have sought immunity from prosecution via a Knesset vote and then sought legislation to prevent the Supreme Court from overturning any such Knesset decision. In the final days of the campaign, Netanyahu was evasive when asked whether he would indeed seek to limit the powers of the Supreme Court.

Neither Netanyahu nor Blue and White leader Benny Gantz received enough support to form a government. Netanyahu has been endorsed as preferred prime minister by 55 MKs; Gantz has the backing of 54.