Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Thursday rejected a request from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who was seeking to push off the date for his pre-indictment hearing regarding cases pending against him.

Mandelblit informed the High Court of Justice of this in his response to a petition filed by the Movement for Quality Government, demanding the hearing be held immediately. In his response, the attorney general asked the court to reject the petition outright in the absence of grounds for intervention by the court on the date of the hearing. The hearing is expected to take place between October 2-3, following which it will be decided whether to indict Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s representatives sought to delay the hearing following the dispersal of the Knesset and the announcement of new elections, which will take place two weeks earlier. However, in a letter sent today to the Prime Minister’s attorney, Dr. Gil Limon, a senior advisor to the attorney general said that attorney general considered the matter, and after considering all the relevant issues and interests, he found that there was no justification for granting the request. In the letter, the prime minister was asked to confirm until June 10th that he intends to appear for a hearing. If he does not do so, it is written, the attorney general will make a final decision in the case on the basis of the existing evidence.

Mandelblit announced his decision to indict Netanyahu, subject to a hearing, on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in cases 4000, 2000 and 1000 already in March. The hearing for Netanyahu was supposed to take place in July, but on May 10th, the last date for the hearing, Netanyahu’s lawyers asked for additional time they were required to prepare accordingly. Last month, Mandelblit announced that he had agreed to postpone the date of the hearing in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s files by three months, and that it would take place in October.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel said in response: “The Attorney General’s response to the movement’s petition is a weak response, and so will we see the whole process of this hearing, which is a privilege that would not have been enjoyed by any regular person. There is no prize for the disgraceful conduct surrounding the subject of the hearing in his case. The postponement of the hearing by another month is precisely that, a reward for humiliating behavior. We hope that the High Court of Justice will understand what the citizens of Israel have already understood, and all the prime minister’s requests to postpone the hearing are only an attempt to evade prosecution.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)