Netanyahu's Trial Resumes Today, Minister Amsalem Criticized the Decision

Today (Monday) the trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will resume in the District Court in Jerusalem, following the return of work in the normal format in the courts, for the first time since the beginning of the war.

The last hearing in the trial was on September 27. Four years have passed since the indictment was filed, and the trial is still at the prosecution stage.

With the beginning of the war, Justice Minister Yariv Levin announced emergency mode in the courts. Until mid-November, only urgent hearings took place, mainly detention hearings. From November 15th until the end of November, they expanded the activity to civil pre-trial hearings and hearings in the family courts, but evidentiary hearings in criminal and civil proceedings did not take place at all.

According to the new regulations that came into force in December, cases in which the parties or lawyers are in the reserves, evacuees or relatives of abductees or bereaved families will be frozen, so that the deadlines set by law for submitting court documents will not be counted in their case, and no hearings will be held, unless the parties have agreed otherwise.

Police and Securities Authority investigators who investigated case 4000 - the Bezeq-yes case - are expected to testify at the Netanyahu trial this week. Tomorrow Lahav 433 investigator Eran Buchnik will testify; And later this week, Dotan Malihi, also an investigator in Lahav, will testify; and Lior Shpitz, a researcher at the Securities Authority.

The evidence in case 4000 will continue, with the judges' recommendation to the prosecution to withdraw from the bribery charge in the case and proceed only with the offense of breach of trust.

Minister Dudi Amsalem attacked the timing of renewing Netanyahu's trial and wrote last night on his X (Twitter) account: "War, abductees, evacuees, economy? No no... What is most important now is to renew Netanyahu's trial, and engage the Prime Minister of Israel with the unfounded and crazy trivial testimonies. Yes, yes, you read that right - it really cannot be delayed. A disgrace like no other!" He wrote.