Ex-State Attorney: Attorney-General must indict PM Netanyahu for bribery

Mandelblit starts marathon meetings on Netanyahu.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB, GIL HOFFMAN
Updated: DECEMBER 23, 2018 19:08
PM Benjamin Netanyahu giving presentation at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, December 16th, 2018. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
PM Benjamin Netanyahu giving presentation at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, December 16th, 2018.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit will begin on Sunday what have been billed as “marathon meetings” that will decide the legal fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mandelblit and his deputies have cleared the next month and a half to two months on their schedules to deal intensely with nothing but Netanyahu’s cases, Channel Ten reported.
Former state attorney Moshe Lador said on Saturday that any scenario besides an indictment against Netanyahu “is not realistic.”
Speaking at an event in Mevaseret Zion, Lador said that the sum total of both police and prosecution team opinions to indict Netanyahu for bribery in cases 1000 (the “Illegal Gifts Affair”), 2000 (“the Yediot Aharonot-Israel Hayom Affair”) and 4000 (“the Bezeq-Walla! Affair”) is simply too powerful for Mandelblit to close the cases against the prime minister.
Lador has said that Case 2000 is as serious as Case 4000, even as The Jerusalem Post has reported that Mandelblit views Case 4000 as the killer bullet for Netanyahu legally.
In April, Mandelblit asked the police to review whether new evidence obtained in Case 4000 strengthened Cases 1000 and 2000.
But in June, the Post learned that Mandelblit still viewed Case 2000 as weaker. Then in September, there were leaks that Sheldon Adelson had strengthened Case 2000 against Netanyahu.
It is unclear whether Mandelblit will stick to his initial leanings that Case 2000 is weaker or whether the later developments will bring him to indict Netanyahu for bribery in that case, as he is expected to do in Case 4000.
Both cases 4000 and 2000 involve allegations of the prime minister seeking to bribe Walla and Yediot Aharonot to get more positive media coverage.
In April, Lador said that Case 4000 substantially strengthens Case 2000’s allegations by showing that Netanyahu has a pattern of media bribery.
In early March, former top Netanyahu adviser Nir Hefetz cut a plea deal with the prosecution to turn state’s witness against Netanyahu mainly in Case 4000, but also adding details for Cases 1000 and 2000.
This followed other blows to the prime minister when two other former top aides, Shlomo Filber and Ari Harow, also turned state’s witness – Filber in Case 4000, and Harow in Cases 1000 and 2000.
Netanyahu’s spokesman responded to Lador on Saturday night by saying that “Lador’s one-sided statements are part of a string of leaks intended to pressure Mandelblit to indict Netanyahu in what is part of a game that is fixed.”