Judges recommend dropping Netanyahu’s bribery charge as trial testimony ends after 18 months

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrapped up the one-and-a-half-year-long testimony in his corruption trial with a withering attack on the prosecution on Monday, while the judges repeated their recommendation that the bribery charge in Case 4000 be dropped.

Netanyahu is being charged with fraud and breach of trust in Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, and faces an additional charge of accepting a bribe in exchange for positive media coverage in Case 4000. The trial began in May 2020, after an investigation kicked off in late 2016.

The judges noted during a hearing on Monday that they stood by the recommendation first made in June 2023 that the bribery charge be dropped because it will be hard to prove and would extend the mammoth trial by several more months.

Chief defense attorney Amit Hadad warned that “if the bribery charge remains, we’ll have hundreds of witnesses here. There’s no chance we would finish by March 2028,” according to Israeli media reports.

Despite his attendance not being required, Netanyahu appeared in person at the hearing to oppose the court’s suggestion to increase sessions to five days a week, which Hadad controversially compared to the trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

The prime minister used the stage to blast the prosecutors, attacking the investigation and trial as “10 years of hell” motivated by the political desire to replace him.

The testimony during wartime had been moved from Jerusalem to another court in Tel Aviv due to security concerns. The period was marked by frequent delays and postponements of hearings as the prime minister navigated the testimonies amid wars on numerous fronts, often receiving emergency updates and having to leave the court during a hearing.

“The goal was to go through with a fine-tooth comb, to look for something; they found nothing. They interrogated all my relatives and family, methods of interrogation that are unbelievable. They destroyed families. They weren’t looking for a crime, they were looking for a person and they found nothing,” Netanyahu charged.

“This was an attempt to harm — a direct and deliberate harm, a political assassination — to prevent the citizens of Israel from electing who they want.”

The judges' recommendation was effectively a warning to the prosecution that the bribery charge would not be upheld, as months of testimony didn’t change their minds, leaving only the closing arguments as the prosecution's last opportunity to convince them.

While the judges’ recommendation didn’t touch on the separate charge of breach of trust, the two charges are connected, meaning that Case 4000, also known as the Bezeq-Walla case, could end without any convictions for Netanyahu.

It centers on allegations that Netanyahu gave regulatory instructions favoring the Bezeq telecommunications company and in return, major shareholder Shaul Elovitch allegedly received favorable media coverage from Walla News, which is owned by Elovitch.

Case 1000 focuses on allegations that Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu received illegal gifts worth around NIS 700,000 (roughly $211,000) from Israeli Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer, mainly cigars and bottles of champagne, in exchange for different favors.

Case 2000 alleges that Netanyahu and Arnon Mozes, the owner of the daily paper Yedioth Ahronoth, negotiated a deal to boost the paper’s circulation by undermining rival newspaper Israel Hayom (Israel Today) in exchange for better coverage.