https://www.jns.org/corrupt-case-netanyahu-trial-politically-driven-legal-experts-say/
Now in its fifth year, the cross-examination of Israel’s prime minister began this week with Benjamin Netanyahu taking the stand in the Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday.
While the trial continues, legal experts tell JNS the case has collapsed from an evidentiary point of view. Netanyahu had been right, they say, the case is politically driven, something more and more Israelis have begun to understand.
“Having followed the case closely from its initiation until now I have no doubt that Netanyahu’s claim from the outset that this is political persecution is correct,” Talia Einhorn, professor of law and a titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, told JNS.
Haim Shain, an attorney and legal lecturer at Shaare Mishpat College in Hod Hasharon, concurred, explaining to JNS that Israel’s political opposition realized it couldn’t win back the parliament so it focused on taking control through non-electoral means, namely the Supreme Court, the Attorney General’s Office, the press and academia.
“What they failed to do in elections, they are doing through the judicial system, with the backing of academia and the media. For some time, we have understood that these are phony cases,” he said.
Netanyahu faces corruption charges in three separate cases—Cases 1000 and 2000 (the charge is “breach of trust” in both instances), and Case 4000 (bribery, fraud and breach of trust).
This week’s cross-examination began with Case 1000, led by prosecutor Yehonatan Tadmor. Each case has its own team of prosecutors. (Analysts say the trial will cost the state many millions in legal costs.) Yet despite the resources invested, the prosecution has conducted itself in a negligent and unprofessional manner, experts say.
For instance, in Case 1000, the prime minister is accused of taking valuables over the course of three years, mainly in the form of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cigars and champagne from two wealthy businessmen, Australian James Packer and Israeli Arnon Milchan.
Although cigars and champagne are the items most associated with the Netanyahu trial in the mind of the public, Einhorn said that the charge is based entirely on the word of one witness, Hadas Klein. No evidence, or additional testimony supports her claim and no investigation was undertaken to corroborate it.
