Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu faces justice for corruption

Benjamin Netanyahu is a regular at the first. First head of government in the history of Israel born after the creation of the country, the most enduring Israeli Prime Minister, the fiercest adversary of Iran ... And the first head of government in the history of the country to face charges criminals. No doubt he would have done well.

It is therefore a new page that opens on Sunday in Israel with the beginning of the trial for corruption of Benjamin Netanyahu, during his mandate. After seventeen months of an electoral crisis during which he played his "political survival", Netanyahu is expected at the Jerusalem district court for a new battle, judicial this time, in order to avoid prison and to whitewash reputation.

Before him, Ehud Olmert, former star of Likud (his party too), had already been charged with corruption. But after having resigned from his mandate as Prime Minister. Olmert had been found guilty of receiving bribes before languishing in prison for sixteen months.

180,000 euros of champagne, cigars, jewelry…

A scenario that Benjamin Netanyahu, 70, seeks to avoid, accused of having received 700,000 shekels (or 180,000 euros) of cigars, champagne and jewelry from wealthy personalities in exchange for financial or personal favors.

According to investigators, Netanyahu also tried to gain favorable coverage by the largest paid daily in Israel, Yediot Aharonot. And, above all, the courts suspect him of having granted government favors which could have brought in millions of dollars to the owner of the Israeli telecommunications company Bezeq, in exchange for favorable media coverage by one of the group's media, l influential Walla site.

Of the three cases for which Benjamin Netanyahu will be tried, it is the latter which is the most explosive but perhaps also the most complex.

“In the classic cases of corruption, everything revolves around money […] but, there, it is corruption to obtain favorable press coverage. This is unprecedented, ”notes Amir Fuchs, a researcher at the Democratic Institute of Israel. How to prove media favors? "It is not just offering favorable coverage, having said good things about it [...], but granting it total editorial control over the specific texts and photos," he adds.

Towards a sentence negotiation?

After months of suspense, Attorney General Avichaï Mandelblit charged Netanyahu in November 2019, which was then considered to be a "political death warrant" by his detractors. But Bibi, as the Israelis call him, managed to stay at the head of his party, finish first in the last legislative elections, negotiate a power-sharing agreement with his rival Benny Gantz and, thus, remain Prime minister.

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His trial was scheduled to start in mid-March, but the Covid-19 pandemic extended the deadline to May 24.

His lawyers had asked that he not have to appear at the opening Sunday afternoon (midday GMT) of a trial that could stretch over several months, even years, including possible appeals. But the court has confirmed in recent days that the Prime Minister should be present at the hearing, even if it remains technical, with the program of reading the indictments. "A person can only be tried for criminal allegations in his presence," insisted the magistrates.

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In Israel, the Prime Minister has no judicial immunity, but, unlike other elected officials and public servants, he does not have to resign or withdraw during his trial.

For Yuval Shany, professor of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Benjamin Netanyahu will find himself in "conflict of interest" because he is both "head of government and therefore responsible for a large number of decisions that may affect the people's lives "and" accused in the fight against the government institutions that are pursuing him ".

The main party pleads his innocence, denounces a plot hatched by the justice against him but could also, at any time before the verdict, "negotiate a sentence" with the prosecutor as authorized by Israeli law.