The hearings in the criminal trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumed on Tuesday morning, following the court system’s summer recess, and in the midst of the start of the military campaign to conquer Gaza City.
The defense lawyers in Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000 – for Shaul and Iris Elovich and Arnon “Noni” Mozes – dramatically and fiercely opposed the court’s August decision to expand the hearing days to four days per week starting in November – up from three.
The prosecution said it would respect any decision the court issues.
The hearing today will begin with a closed-door testimony, continuing Tuesday’s, and will start at 9:30 a.m.
The court’s decision, issued in August during the legal summer recess, was made for “the need to move the case along,” wrote Jerusalem District Court Judges Rivka Friedman-Feldman, Moshe Bar-Am, and Oded Shaham.
The defense requested that the court cancel its decision, as it would disproportionately overwhelm the team, such that it would have a hard time tending to other cases.
As the decision stands, Netanyahu is scheduled to testify three days out of the week, while on the fourth, the court will hear testimonies from other witnesses presented by the defense.
Tuesday morning began with a closed-door hearing before the judges, with testimonies concerning the case itself. Netanyahu left the courthouse at 1 p.m. for previously scheduled appointments, after which the public hearing on the scheduling issue took place.
The prime minister is on trial in three separate cases – 1000, 2000, and 4000 – for which he was indicted in 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to all three.
Arnon Milchan
The last public hearing took place on July 16 before the summer recess, with questioning focused on Case 1000, in which Netanyahu is on trial for a conflict of interest relating to billionaire Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, who was his close friend and confidant while he served as communications minister from 2013 to 2015.
Allegedly, the prime minister received thousands of dollars worth’ of champagne and cigars from Milchan and from Australian billionaire James Packer, who was a friend to both.
Netanyahu, allegedly, pushed for legislative and regulatory changes that would have been beneficial to Milchan during that time. The prime minister is charged with fraud and breach of trust.
In the last hearing before the recess, the subject matter of the questioning concerned pushes by Netanyahu to secure a US visa for Milchan after his had been canceled. Due to security concerns with information surrounding this issue going on the public record, a representative from the Defense Ministry asked that the hearing be switched to a closed-door setting.
The subject matter of the closed-door hearing likely continued in this line of questioning.
Although it was never confirmed publicly by Israel, Milchan allegedly helped secure technology and materials for its rumored nuclear program.