Mandelblit says he approved questioning Netanyahu as suspect, defense challenges wording

Mandelblit said he remembered approving questioning of Netanyahu as a suspect, but could not recall whether he explicitly approved mentioning bribery in the formal warning given to him in Case 4000.

The hearings in the criminal trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumed on Tuesday, with former attorney-general Avichai Mandelblit returning to the witness stand to testify for the defense.

Mandelblit approved the investigations into Netanyahu and later decided to indict him in Cases 1000, 2000 and 4000.

In Tuesday’s testimony, Mandelblit said he remembered approving questioning of Netanyahu as a suspect, but could not recall whether he explicitly approved mentioning bribery in the formal warning given to him in Case 4000.

When Netanyahu’s lawyer, Amit Hadad, asked what suspected offense he had authorized questioning over, Mandelblit broadly referred to public integrity offenses, distinguishing Case 4000, which involved suspected bribery, from Cases 1000 and 2000.

Hadad challenged that account, saying the term “public integrity” appeared neither in the meeting records nor in the warnings given to Netanyahu. He accused Mandelblit of adopting the wording from a memorandum he had submitted to the court explaining his approvals.

Prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh said the wording of the warning might appear in redacted portions of the records, while stressing that nothing concerning the attorney-general’s approvals had been redacted. Judge Moshe Bar-Am said that, in his view, wording describing the nature of the investigation would not have been blacked out.

The trial, which began in May 2020, combines three cases. Prosecutors allege that Netanyahu received gifts from wealthy businessmen in Case 1000; discussed a possible exchange of favorable coverage for steps against rival newspaper Israel Hayom with Yediot Aharonot publisher Arnon Mozes in Case 2000; and advanced regulatory measures benefiting Bezeq in exchange for intervention in Walla coverage in Case 4000.

Netanyahu faces charges of fraud and breach of trust in all three cases, and bribery in Case 4000. He denies wrongdoing. The other three defendants are former Bezeq controlling shareholder Shaul Elovitch and his wife, Iris, and Mozes himself.

In his testimony last week, Mandelblit acknowledged that police investigators took steps beyond the approvals he had given, but rejected the defense's suggestion that pressure from prosecutors, police, or the media dictated his decisions.