برسم القضاء اللبناني…القضاء الإسرائيلي يتهم نتنياهو بالرشوة والاحتيال وخرق الثقة مما قد ينهي دوره السياسي والحزبي/Netanyahu Charged With Bribery, Fraud and Breach of Trust, Capping a Dramatic Political Year
UNSPECIFIED, ISRAEL - APRIL 8: (ISRAEL OUT) In this handout provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and family take vacation over the Passover holiday April 8, 2015 in southern Israel. Netanyahu recently won a very close reelection campaign and has been very vocal in his objections during nuclear arms negotiations between the United States and Iran. (Photo by Amos Ben Gershom/GPO via Getty Images)
برسم القضاء اللبناني…القضاء الإسرائيلي يتهم نتنياهو بالرشوة والاحتيال وخرق الثقة مما قد ينهي دوره السياسي والحزبي
هآرتس/21 تشرين الثاني/2019
أُعلن قبل قليل في كافة وكالات الأنباء بأنه لأول مرة منذ قيام دولة إسرائيل يتم اتهام رئيس وزراء لا يزال في الحكم بالرشوة.
Netanyahu Charged With Bribery, Fraud and Breach of Trust, Capping a Dramatic Political Year Netael Bandel/Haarez/November 21/2019
Netanyahu becomes first sitting prime minister in Israel’s history to be charged with bribery, in case involving quid-pro-quo with telecom tycoon
For the first time in Israel’s history, a sitting prime minister is accused of bribery: Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit announced Thursday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be charged with bribery, fraud and breach in three corruption cases, dubbed Cases 4000, 2000 and 1000.
The indictment comes after a four-day hearing with Netanyahu’s defense team last month, followed by weeks of intensive discussion at the attorney general’s offices.
Case 4000
Case 4000 is considered the most serious, and revolves around an alleged bribery deal between Netanyahu and businessman Shaul Elovich, who controlled the Bezeq telecommunications company and the Walla News site. According to the indictment, Netanyahu and Elovich engaged in a quid-pro-pro deal in which Netanyahu – as communication minister – led regulatory steps directly tied to Elovich’s businesses and interests that yielded the tycoon some $500 million.
In return, according to the indictment, Netanyahu and his wife Sara made consistent requests to alter the coverage on the Walla News website in order to serve the Netanyahus’ interests and target their opponents. Elovich allegedly pressed the editors of the website to comply with the Netanyahus’ demands. Substantial circumstantial evidence convinced Mendelblit that both Elovich and Netanyahu were aware of the quid-pro-quo, though there is no evidence of an explicit coordination of the deal.
Netanyahu’s attorneys argued that favorable coverage does not constitute a bribe and that in any case the prime minister didn’t try to skew the coverage in his favor but rather pushed for balanced coverage out of ideology. In addition, they claimed all decisions made by Netanyahu in his role as communication minister were approved by the ministry’s professional staff.
