Court Weighs Dropping Bribery Charge Against Netanyahu in Corruption Case

JERUSALEM: A three-judge panel hearing corruption charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again recommended that prosecutors drop the bribery charge, saying it would be difficult to prove — a recommendation the court first made three years ago.
Netanyahu’s lawyer, Amit Hadad, told the court that keeping the bribery charge would require testimony from hundreds more witnesses, potentially delaying the trial — which began in 2020 — until 2028. The court also proposed holding hearings five days a week to speed up proceedings, but both prosecution and defense objected, with Hadad comparing the pace to the trial of Nazi official Adolf Eichmann.
Prosecutors allege that as prime minister and communications minister, Netanyahu granted regulatory favors worth hundreds of millions of shekels to Shaul Elovitch, controlling shareholder of telecom giant Bezeq, in exchange for favorable coverage of Netanyahu and his family on Elovitch-owned news site Walla — known as “Case 4000.” Netanyahu also faces two other cases: accepting gifts from wealthy businessmen (Case 1000) and allegedly trading favorable coverage for restricting a rival paper’s circulation (Case 2000). Present in court, Netanyahu denied all charges, calling them politically motivated.