The Likud downplayed Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit’s decision to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pending a hearing on bribery charges in Case 4000 and on fraud and breach of trust in Cases 1000 and 2000.
“No one was surprised by the attorney-general’s decision, which came after three years of intense pressure on him from the press, the Left and the legal establishment to indict him at any price, even if there is nothing behind it,” the Likud said in a statement. “All that mattered to them was to do it before the election.”
The Likud said Netanyahu had been targeted by a witch hunt.
The party noted that there had been four cases and bribery charges had been pursued in all four but the indictment pending a hearing was for only one of them. The Likud predicted that the fourth would be disproven as well in the hearing but lamented that it would not take place before the April 9 election.
“The unilateral publication of the attorney-general’s decision a month before the election without giving the prime minister a chance to refute the false charges is blatant and unprecedented interference in the election,” the Likud said. “The sole purpose of this is to topple Netanyahu’s right-wing government and bring about a left-wing government led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid. This cannot be allowed to happen.”