Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated “The witch hunt is finally over” in a carefully worded statement in which he attacked those involved in the case against his wife, Mrs. Sara Netanyahu, which led to her agreeing to a plea bargain agreement and a criminal conviction for misusing state funds.

The case involved state funds illegally used by the prime minister’s wife to procure catering services for the official Prime Minister’s Residence.

In reading the verdict in the case, Justice Avital Chen stated that “while the defendant misused state funds”, the state’s case is far from a “smooth case” giving additional credibility to the prime minister’s statement following the court hearing on Sunday.

Mrs. Netanyahu told the court “I have suffered enough”, as she is now ordered to pay NIS 55,000 plus a NIS 10,000 fine.

In the accompanying video, Mr. Netanyahu says, “Today, the four-year witch hunt surrounding food and take away has ended, an expedition that has cost the taxpayer millions of shekels.

I have great respect for the court. The judge, the president of the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, rightly said that “the criminal world is foreign to Sarah” and determined that there was no fraud on her part.

The judge said that everything should be put in proportion. The chefs were invited to cook for the guests of the prime minister and his wife, and he said in his closing remarks that there is no doubt that these are official events.

Moreover, he agreed that there were legal problems in the case, to say the least. I tell you too. This is an illegal procedure that violated the Basic Law of the State, four days before I took office, and all this for NIS 122 a day, including many guests.

Sarah had gone through four years of hell against all the accusations that nothing remains of them. Today, when she decided to go to court, she said that she suffered enough and that she wanted this hell to stop.

But I tell you, and you all know that – if it were not my wife, there would not have been an investigation and no one would have dreamed of prosecuting her.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)