Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Netanyahu Asks to Postpone Trial on Corruption


Mon 09 Mar 2020 | 06:01 PM
Yassmine Elsayed

This morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Central Court in occupied Jerusalem to postpone his trial on corruption charges, due in March, for a period of 45 days.

In his request, the PM stated that his legal team "did not obtain the documents related to the investigation."

Netanyahu claimed that the prosecutors did not provide all the information related to the case.

The trial of the outgoing Prime Minister, is due to start on March 17th, two weeks after the elections in which his Likud party won, but the party faces a difficult task in forming the government, especially since it was unable to obtain the majority seats of 61 to form the next government.

And if Israeli President Reuven Rivlin asked Netanyahu to form the government, it would be the first time that he was tried as prime minister while he was in office.

The Israeli public prosecutor charged Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases, which the prime minister denies.

Netanyahu's opponents are expected to try to pass a bill prohibiting the accused person from forming a new government.

He claimed Sunday that his party’s internal polling showed he was a stone’s throw away from a Knesset majority that would allow the formation of a right-wing government.

“Our data from three hours ago shows we are at 59.7 seats,” he told supporters at an election rally outside Tel Aviv.

He referred to his bloc of right-wing and religious parties. “We are very close to victory.”

He said, “This movement [of votes] is a consistent trend of recent days, and we can bring about the formation of a secure right-wing government for Israel.”