Israeli prosecutors have released an amended indictment spelling out charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a case in which he is accused of trading favours with a powerful media mogul.
Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three corruption cases.
One of them alleges he promoted regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the owner of the Bezeq telecom company in exchange for positive coverage on its popular Walla news site.
In response to a request from Netanyahu’s lawyers for more details, prosecutors released a letter on Sunday alleging 315 incidents of Walla being asked to make coverage more favorable for Netanyahu and his family.
They said there were indications Netanyahu was personally involved in 150 of those incidents.
It said the requests included giving more time or prominence to positive articles, changing headlines and lowering or removing unfavorable stories.
It also included alleged requests for negative coverage of Netanyahu’s rivals.
The document listed all 315 suspected incidents, which allegedly included numerous requests to publish flattering articles and photos of Netanyahu’s wife Sara, to conceal reports of embarrassing expenditures and personal information about the Netanyahu family and attempts to embarrass his rivals.
It quoted Bezeq’s controlling shareholder at the time, Shaul Elovitch, as expressing concerns Netanyahu would not approve lucrative business deals for the company if negative articles were published.
Read the article in The Canberra Times (AAP).