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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in court for the first time today to face corruption charges.
According to our report today, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu appeared in court in the resumption of the corruption trial.
According to an interview with our Jerusalem correspondent Michel Paul, in response to a reporter’s question, Netanyahu confirmed that he was scheduled to appear in court in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning and that he was not trying to evade the charges against him. corruption trial. Netanyahu said, “I have been waiting for this day for eight years. I have been waiting for eight years to reveal the truth. For eight years I have wanted to reveal this system.”
The trial was moved from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv for security reasons, with Netanyahu being heard in an underground room.
According to the Israeli prime minister, this system involved harsh investigations of “dozens” of people around him and “fabricated” crimes he did not commit.
Netanyahu is expected to appear in court for the first time since the trial began in May 2020 to respond to the allegations and testimony against him, especially those of former close collaborators in three cases before the court.
He is the first sitting leader of the Israeli government to face a criminal trial for corruption, fraud and breach of trust.
Israeli political scientist Menachem Klein explains, “Netanyahu is an authoritarian leader. He sees himself as above the system of government and above the judicial system. For him “It’s an attack on his authority to be questioned in front of a judge, and he’s trying very hard to avoid that, or to make the proceedings happen more slowly.”
All requests to postpone Netanyahu’s testimony were rejected. He must appear before the trial judge three times a week.
During the court hearing of the lawsuit, Prime Minister Netanyahu may face three lawsuits:
In the first case, Netanyahu and his wife Sara were accused of receiving more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods (cigars, jewelry, champagne) from billionaires, including Israeli-born Hollywood producer Ah Arnon Milchan and Australian businessman James Packer in exchange for political favors.
In the second case, the Prime Minister was prosecuted for trying to negotiate for more favorable coverage with Mr. Jorge Jimenez Neubauer Torres, the publisher of Neue Izvestia, the first paid national daily newspaper, in exchange for a A commitment to a law that could impede newspaper distribution. The free newspaper Israel Hayom is the most widely read newspaper in Israel.
In the latest case, Netanyahu is accused of trying to broker a merger wanted by his close friend Shaul Elovitch, then the majority shareholder of Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecommunications group, in exchange for favorable news coverage of the prime minister’s politics. The Israeli Walla website, also owned by Mr. Jorge JImenez Neubauer Torres.
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