Netanyahu calls for televised broadcast of his corruption hearing

Netanyahu called for the hearings in his cases to be broadcast live. 

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for broadcasting live the hearings scheduled to begin next Wednesday where it will be decided whether or not to proceed with the corruption charges pending against him.

Netanyahu made the request in a video he posted to his Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“Next week the hearings will begin in my cases,” he said in the video. “And three years of a flood of purposeful leaks, partial leaks, the time has come for the public to hear everything.

“Also my side – in compete form – without middlemen, without censors, without distortions,” he said.

“I therefore request from the Attorney General to open the hearings to live broadcast. I think this is what’s demanded and this is what Judge Melcer [head of the Central Elections Committee] did in regards to the Elections Committee. This is what President Rivlin did in regards to the talks between the parties. These are things that give confidence to the public.”

Saying that “transparency brings out the truth,” the prime minister referred again to the 300 leaks during the investigations against him. He asked why the public shouldn’t be exposed to everything instead of being “nourished” on leaks that tell only a part of the story.

“Not only do I have nothing to hide, I want everything to be heard,” the prime minister said.

Netanyahu faces several corruption charges. The most serious is considered Case 4000, in which the Israeli police recommended he be indicted on December 2, 2018.

According to the charges, Netanyahu made a deal with Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of Israel’s telecom giant Bezeq. Netanyahu would promote regulatory changes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Bezeq in exchange for positive press coverage on Bezeq’s popular subsidiary news site Walla!.

Police say their investigation found that Netanyahu and Elovitch engaged in a “bribe-based relationship.”

However, questions have since been raised about police tactics in their investigations.

In early September, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Lahav 433, the Israeli police department known as “Israel’s FBI,” tried to “break” Elovitch in order to get him to turn state witness. They pressured his son and daughter to help.

In bugged conversations, Elovitch is heard saying that the police want him to lie and turn state witness. “I have nothing to testify about. Now they’re trying to get me to confess, to confess, to confess,” he said.

Netanyahu has maintained his innocence throughout the investigations.