An Israeli court ruled on Sunday night it would begin hearing testimony from witnesses in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial in January, drawing into focus the embattled leader’s challenges as he faces rising public anger over the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
The courthouse in East Jerusalem may hold procedural hearings in the Fall before the evidentiary stage gets under way early next year, the court spokesperson said.
Mr Netanyahu was indicted last year for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in cases connected to three corruption probes. The statements from witnesses are expected to highlight the extent of Mr Netanyahu’s legal issues, which have overshadowed the political debate in the country in the past two years and helped bring about three inconclusive elections. He denies wrongdoing and has said the charges are a witch-hunt designed to force him from power.
But in a sign of the trial’s strain on the country’s longest-serving leader, Mr Netanyahu’s defence team asked for a six-month delay in the proceedings due to the coronavirus pandemic. The judge appeared to dismiss the argument by determining the trial’s procedure.
“It’s a decision about political time, how much political time Mr Netanyahu would enjoy before he has a court decision, either conviction or exoneration or a plea bargain,” said Gad Barzilai, a law professor at the University of Haifa.
The trial, which began in May, has bolstered critics who say Mr Netanyahu isn’t fit to lead the country as he balances his own legal defence with his duties of leading the country during what he has himself described as an emergency situation due to a resurgent virus.
Read the article by Felicia Schwartz in The Australian (from The Wall Street Journal).