Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday told the Jerusalem District Court that he intends to file a motion to dismiss the indictment against him in case 4000 (Bezek-Walla), which charges him with bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Netanyahu plans to claim, among other things, that the investigation against him, in this case, began before approval was received from the Attorney General, contrary to the law.
Case 4000 involves the communication conglomerate Bezeq, and the investigation reviewed, among other issues, whether falsehoods were made in regards to paperwork leading to favorable business dealings for Bezeq owner Shaul Elovitch in exchange for favorable reporting to Netanyahu by the news website Walla which Elovitch owned.
Netanyahu has already asked the court to drop this indictment against him over the procedural issue, but the judges postponed their decision until the end of the evidence stage, and said that “at the end of the procedure, we will consider whether there is justification, under the circumstances of the case, to disqualify due to the lack of admissibility of evidence in cases 1000 and 4000, to the extent that it is determined that investigative actions were carried out before the consent of the AG, in keeping with the jurisprudential disqualification doctrine.”
Netanyahu’s attorneys will be given the opportunity to interrogate police investigators who were involved in Case 4000 and will try to establish whether the investigation came before the AG’s approval.
Shaul Elovitch and his wife Iris on Wednesday asked the court to drop the same case, arguing that the police investigation was polluted from the start. They also complained that “the investigators spared no effort and used predatory means against the applicants and against witnesses and other suspects. Offensive and prohibited investigative tricks were used during the investigation; the property of the applicants was seized in violation of the law; arrests and harassment of family members were improperly used to break the spirit of those being interrogated; and suspects were interrogated in extremely difficult conditions in violation of the law.”
