Netanyahu: Under no circumstances will I accept a plea deal
Israel Hayom
May 25, 2020
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows Sunday that he will not agree to a plea bargain in the corruption case against him.
Netanyahu faces bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges in three different cases. His trial opened on Sunday, garnering massive attention from the local and international media.
In an interview with Channel 20, the Israeli cable heritage channel, Netanyahu completely rejects the option of a plea bargain. "Under no circumstances will I agree to a plea deal. We aren't here to make deals, rather get to the truth," he said.
Addressing the indictments against him, he said, "The last election was an expression of gross no-confidence in those who set me up. They are unable to beat me in an election so they do something else. They thought these indictments would be a death blow, but the public is smarter and gave us more votes than ever."
As for the opening of his trial earlier Sunday, Netanyahu said: "I felt I was in one of the more righteous struggles for the Israeli public. A cohort of police officers, prosecutors, and leftist journalists set me up. The prime minister also accused Channel 13 political correspondent Raviv Druker of "obstructing justice and witness-tampering."
"What will he [Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit] do against Druker?" he asked.
The first hearing in Netanyahu's trial began on Sunday afternoon at the Jerusalem District Court. A large contingent of Likud lawmakers – among them ministers Miri Regev, Yoav Gallant and Amir Ohana, and MKs Tzahi Hanegbi and Nir Barkat – arrived at the courthouse to support the prime minister.
Netanyahu gave a fiery speech as he arrived outside the court.
"I demand: Reveal everything, expose everything. Media representatives, I know why you are here. You want to film me in court as part of the "anyone-but-Bibi" propaganda campaign, which doesn't stop for even a moment. But me – I want the public to see the whole picture, to know the whole truth.
"Therefore, my first request from the court is full transparency. I ask for everything to be broadcast live. A continuous, uncensored livestream. The public should hear everything, and not via the skewed filter of the prosecution's court reporters."
The prime minister also called for "the exposure of the shocking document the Justice Ministry sent to the state comptroller in 2017. The same Justice Ministry that in 2019 signed off on the indictment against me, sent a document to the comptroller two years prior, concluding that there was no fault in my decisions or actions in the central subject of the indictment.
"You know what's even more amazing? That under all kinds of pretexts, this document is not reaching me, and it is not reaching you, the public, the citizens of Israel, because it dismantles their case and prevents them from ousting a right-wing prime minister. And that is why I am demanding: immediately publish the document the Justice Ministry sent to the state comptroller.""And I am demanding more things. I am demanding the publication of the protocol of the interrogations where criminal measures were used, including blackmail, to get witnesses to incriminate me with false testimonies.
"I demand the publication of the interrogation in which a witness was brought together with a certain woman at a police facility and threatened, 'If you don't give us what we want against Netanyahu, we will destroy your family.'
"I demand the publication of the interrogation protocol of Svetlana, the employee at the Prime Minister's Residence. Svetlana came to the police to complain about sexual harassment by a housekeeper at the residence [Meni Naftali], who was a state witness in the ridiculous catering meals case against my wife. A senior police interrogator came in and said, 'If you don't say Netanyahu sent you to complain, you will spend the night at Neve Tirtza Prison.' The same interrogator was a member of the team investigating me. It's simply unbelievable.
"And there are countless more examples of illegitimate acts that were committed. It seems like there is no limit to the lengths gone to try to bring down me and the right-wing camp," he said.
Outside the courthouse, hundreds of people gathered with signs and loudspeakers to protest the legal proceedings against the prime minister and offer him their support.
For hours, the protesters shouted slogans and waved Israeli flags and placards saying, among other things: "Your honors, Netanyahu is not alone," and "They set him up." Other signs likened the trial to the infamous Dreyfus affair.
One of Netanyahu's more prominent supporters, Itzik Zarka, who helped spearhead the demonstration, told Israel Hayom: "We came to give our prime minister strength. We are very angry and are also a part of this trial because these are indictments that the Left built up to topple the government and take our democracy."
Also among the protesters was Tal Gilboa, the prime minister's adviser on animal welfare. "We came to show him he's not alone, that there are many citizens who support him and are grateful to him," she said.
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