Last week, attorneys Shaul and Iris Elovich submitted to the court a request to cancel the trial for reasons of protection of justice.
Protection from justice is requested when the state institutions behaved in such a way that whether the accused is entitled or guilty - it is no longer possible to claim that he received a fair trial.
And a biased sentence is not a sentence.
Over 222 pages, defense attorney Jack Chen enumerates the cases in which, in his opinion, the prosecutor's office and the police violated the rights of the defendants and witnesses in the case, delayed the legal process and even violated the law.
Chen accuses the prosecutor's office of "tunnel vision" - a stubborn pursuit of one and only conclusion, which seems to have been determined in advance, i.e.: Netanyahu is guilty, now we'll see what.
Ignoring other interpretations of the actions carried out by the accused, the witnesses and the state's witnesses;
Repeated leaks to the media (a criminal offense for which no one has been investigated and, of course, has not been prosecuted), concealment of evidence from the defense - requests and petitions have already been filed against all of these, the allegations were found to be true, but the trial continued as usual.
In the eyes of those who follow the trial from the safe distance of their living room - these are legal matters subject to one interpretation or another.
Is written approval from the ombudsman necessary to open an investigation against a prime minister, as required by the Basic Law, or is it a negligible technical matter? Oh, there have already been discussions on the issue, some in the court itself. Netanyahu's judges already know that the investigation began without any approval at all and continued without written approval , but the trial is proceeding as usual, and it seems that no one believes that the fact that the police, the prosecutor's office and the ombudsman broke the law is a reason to stop it.
When talking about state institutions, the fact that they are made up of human beings with all their flaws and political positions is forgotten.
The law enforcement system especially enjoys a more exalted status than, say, the "Ministry of Education", and even more so than the human species called "accused".
These are already suspected by the public in any case by virtue of being summoned for investigation.
The fact that they also have rights that are a fundamental part of the legal system - can be perceived as a nuisance.
Especially when the intentional violation of defendants' rights serves a higher purpose.
For example, exposing a terrorist network.
For example, incriminating a prime minister.
When the police arrested the Aloviches, they not only confiscated all of their bank accounts, but also emptied their home of art and jewelry found in it, including jewelry and watches worn by the two.
Iris Elovich was dismantled from her wedding ring and earrings.
Two trucks and an art appraiser were ordered to take the artworks from their home.
All of this as part of a determined - and illegal - initiative by the police, perhaps also by the prosecutor's office.
The Halovitches petitioned the High Court, which was not enthusiastic about the police action. "I had difficulty understanding whether this is a practice practiced by the police," wrote Judge Yitzhak Amit, "if indeed it is, it should be stopped immediately." Did the judges consider prosecuting the police officers and attorneys who About the law? Naaaah. We can be content with the serious words of Judge Amit, and say thank you.
Of all the harassment and alleged crimes committed by the police and the prosecutor's office in order to convict Netanyahu, the most horrifying is the torture of the body and mind that Nir Hefetz went through until the state.
Like the right-wing Elovich and Filber, Hefetz was a victim of interrogation methods from which Ilan Yeshua, Hadas Klein and Noni Mozes were exempt.
There were those who received a RLV discount in advance.
Hefetz was interrogated for long hours every day and then taken to detention centers all over the country, to tire him out even more.
One of the detention cells is infested with bedbugs.
Hefetz was covered in blisters and itched constantly.
His pleas for medical treatment were denied.
The investigator, in his eagerness to obtain incriminating evidence against Netanyahu, asked: "Is all this itching and this mess and this suffering and this lack of sleep worth it to you?"
After a few days like this, Hefetz fell asleep in the interrogation room.
One of the investigators suggested letting him sleep, or take a day off from the investigation.
His commander rejected the request.
In the first week he was starved.
The investigators provided him with a sandwich from a machine and black coffee at lunch.
In the evening, a few slices of plain bread, and a small box of spread, without a plate and without cutlery. The hunger, fatigue and humiliation got the better of him. When he got sweets and snacks - he hoarded them in his shoes. When he complained about the conditions of his arrest, the policeman called him "insolent".
Apart from the physical abuse, Hefetz also underwent an "interrogation exercise" designed to put mental pressure on him to testify against Netanyahu.
The exercise is so despicable that most of its details are prohibited from publication.
For the purpose of the exercise, the police recruited someone who was not suspected of any crime, but the investigators used her to threaten Hefetz.
"A bomb is going to land on you here that will shake your world, and I'm not being cynical and I'm not kidding, and I really think you should reconsider your path," threatened researcher Yaniv Peleg, and also bragged about the police's means of gathering information.
One of them is covered under the gag order, I wonder why;
After all, legal wiretapping warrants should not be prohibited from publication, and the question of what the mysterious device is, and why it was blacked out - deserves an answer.
We know about the investigation of the associate, because she was illegally searched.
In order to obtain the search warrant, the police accused her of accepting bribes, disrupting investigative processes, operating in tandem and money laundering.
But she was not interrogated with a warning, and only personal questions were asked regarding the nature of her relationship with Hefetz.
In court, the investigators admitted that some of the questions were unnecessary, the judges also wondered about her investigation and the reasons for it - but a gag order also applied to these, and the judges' long criticism of her investigation was completely blacked out.
The violation of human rights in the 4000 case was pushed to the margins of the media discussion.
The contamination of the legal process was set aside as a byproduct of a more important agenda: removing Netanyahu from political life.
The people who took to the streets with an unceasing demand to prosecute the corrupt, the people who spoke, and wrote, and denounced, and leaked, cursed, and preached morality, and warned against a dictatorship - live in peace with Stasi-style investigations and a Soviet-style trial.
The drawings about purity of character, quality of government and the end of democracy were a disguise for the real goal: a detention cell infested with bedbugs for anyone who stands in their way.
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