PM Olmert Appeals to Jerusalem District Court to Reject Opening Trial • District Judge Rejected Request: "Upcoming Hearing is Read Only"

• Photo: Mark Israel Salem

Jerusalem District Court Judge Rebecca Friedman-Feldman today rejected Attorney General Amit Haddad, the attorney for Prime Minister Netanyahu, who sought to postpone the prime minister's trial for about 45 days.

According to the Prime Minister, the hearing on his case, which is expected to open on March 17, should be postponed, because his attorneys did not receive all the investigative material from the prosecutor's office as required. Friedman-Feldman wrote in her decision: "The upcoming hearing is read-only, the defendants 'response to charges is not requested at this time. Therefore, the grounds of the application and the other defendants' response are not justified in rejecting a hearing."

The State Prosecutor's Office also informed the District Court in Jerusalem that it opposes the Prime Minister's request to postpone the hearing before the indictment in his case, a request filed yesterday. The response was submitted to the court saying that the state does not insist that the defendants return the charge at the scheduled hearing (March 17, 20). ), But requests that a reminder hearing be held in the presence of the parties at the time of the hearing for the purpose of determining the dates of hearings in the case.

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Netanyahu's Attorneys Request to Reject Trial: "We Did Not Receive Full Material"

"As of the date of this application, all of the investigative materials collected as part of the investigation (and not included in the core of the investigative material transferred as part of the hearing proceedings) have not yet been forwarded to the defense counsel," Netanyahu's attorneys wrote in a letter sent to the court. "Only yesterday did the respondent announce that the investigative materials were under investigation, and even noted that there was digital media and other material not yet ready for review."

The letter also states that "under these circumstances, the Honorable Court is requested to postpone the reading hearing for approximately 45 days, in order to allow the respondent to submit the full materials for review and to provide a stay of defense to obtain the material and to formulate an assessment, rather than initial, of the time required to study the material. And prepare for preliminary proceedings, including requests for investigation materials and petitions for removal of privilege. "

Blue and White Chairman MK Benny Gantz responded to PM's request to postpone his trial on Twitter, tweeting that "it has started. Rejection - escape - increase. not going to happen".

It began:



Rejection - escape - increase.



not going to happen. https://t.co/7E4HL16xmh

- Benny Gantz - Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) March 9, 2020

As we recall, in early February, Netanyahu's attorneys refused to respond to the indictments filed against him in files 1,000, 2,000 and 4,000, because the prosecution did not deliver all the materials to them without the necessary permits.

Prior to that, the State Attorney's Office filed a request for secrecy over some of the materials in the prime minister's files on the grounds that they were intelligence materials. The decision means that the materials will not be handed over to Netanyahu's defense team. The prosecutor's office asked the court to grant a 45-day extension for the certificate to be issued. The Likud then argued that the extension request indicates the "haste" of the prosecutor's office in filing the indictment, and, more importantly, claimed that the indictment without a certificate of privilege has grounds for revocation.