JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pleaded not guilty Monday as he resumed his trial on corruption charges in a Jerusalem courtroom just weeks before the national election, in which he hopes to extend the his 12-year rule.
Netanyahu was charged last year with fraud, breach of trust and acceptance of bribes in three different cases. In recent months, Israelis have been holding weekly protests demanding his resignation and criticizing his government’s response to the coronavirus crisis. Protesters gathered outside the courthouse could be heard inside the courtroom where the hearing was being held.
He is accused of accepting luxurious gifts from wealthy friends and offering favors to powerful media moguls in exchange for favorable coverage from him and his family.. The last hearing was postponed last month due to blocking restrictions on public meetings.
Israel’s longest-serving leader is also the first acting prime minister to be prosecuted for corruption. Israeli law requires cabinet ministers to resign when they are charged with criminal offenses, but it does not specifically address the case of an accused prime minister.
Netanyahu has denied any wrongful offense and dismissed the charges against him as a “witch hunt” orchestrated by biased police forces and media. He has refused to step down and has used his office as a pulpit against critics and the criminal justice system.
At Monday’s hearing, Netanyahu’s lawyers filed a written response pleading not guilty. They then argued against the cases on procedural grounds, saying the attorney general had not approved the investigations in writing.
After 20 minutes, Netanyahu left the courtroom without explanation and his caravan left.
The hearing continued in absentia, with his lawyers arguing for more than an hour that constitutional procedures had not been followed. The judges were skeptical and repeatedly asked defense attorneys to end it. The prosecution then rejected these arguments, saying the attorney general had approved the investigations in dozens of meetings.
Outside the courthouse, about 150 protesters sang against Netanyahu. Many carried banners that read “Minister of Crime.”
“We want a new government, a clean government, without corruption,” said Sharon Sagy, a protester.
At the start of his trial last May, Netanyahu was flanked by a cohort of Likud party allies while bowing to the media, police, judges and prosecutors. He said the process was aimed at “dismissing a strong, right-wing prime minister and therefore removing the nationalist camp from the country’s leadership for many years”.
Netanyahu has been Israeli prime minister since 2009 and, in the past two years, has managed to stay in power through three tumultuous and blocked elections. His weak governing coalition collapsed in December and he now faces a major battle for re-election in the March 23 parliamentary elections.
Netanyahu hopes to campaign to get the country out of the pandemic through one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world. It boasts of having personally secured millions of doses from major drug manufacturers, which has allowed Israel to vaccinate more than a third of its population (9.3 million). He hopes to vaccinate the entire adult population by the end of March.
But his government has faced strong criticism for other aspects of its response to the crisis. The country is only now beginning to emerge from its third national closure, and the closures have led to rising unemployment.
An emergency government formed last May to combat the coronavirus outbreak has been embroiled in disputes. The country’s leaders have struggled to adopt consistent policies and have accused each other of playing politics with the pandemic. Meanwhile, Israel has reported nearly 700,000 cases since the outbreak began, including 5,121 deaths.
One of the main controversies concerns the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Israel, many of whom have openly opened restrictions on public meetings.. Netanyahu will need ultra-Orthodox parties to form a ruling coalition, and his critics accuse him of turning a blind eye to his rapes.
Polls show Netanyahu’s Likud has won more seats, but is fighting to form a 61-seat majority coalition in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. The margin of victory could be extremely tight, which could allow for a small marginal party to decide who runs the next government.
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Associated Press writer Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem contributed to this report.