A three judge panel for the public corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set on Wednesday. The Jerusalem District Court judges will be: Rivkah Friedman-Feldman, Moshe Bar-Am and Oded Shaham. A decision on the panel had been stalled since the indictment against Netanyahu was filed on January 28. A trial date has still not been set. Though originally, there was greater potential for the trial to open before the March 2 elections, at this point the most likely scenario is a post-election opening for the trial. Netanyahu officially became the first sitting prime minister in Israel’s history to be indicted two weeks ago when Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit filed an indictment with the Jerusalem District Court against him for bribery, fraud and breach of trust hours after Netanyahu withdrew his immunity request. Mandelblit announced his final indictment on November 21, but could not file it with the courts until the immunity request process was concluded. The two-month delay in filing the indictment came from Netanyahu’s unusual request for immunity (most ministers have not requested) and the fact that the Knesset has been out-of-session for an extended period. Hours after announcing the indictment on November 21, Mandelblit gave a speech in which he said that it was personally sad for him to indict Netanyahu, who he personally greatly admired in terms of talents, but that he was obligated by the law to do so. The attorney-general ultimately indicted Netanyahu for bribery in Case 4000, the Bezeq-Walla! Affair, for breach of public trust in Case 1000, the Illegal Gifts Affair and for breach of public trust in Case 2000, the Yediot Ahronot-Yisrael Hayom Affair. In Case 4000, Netanyahu is accused of involvement in a media bribery scheme in which Walla! owner Shaul Elovitch gave him positive coverage in exchange for Netanyahu making government policies favor Elovitch’s Bezeq company to the tune of around NIS 1.8 billion. This is the hardest case for Netanyahu as he faces accusations by two close former aides turned state witnesses, Shlomo Filber and Nir Hefetz. In Case 1000, Netanyahu is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of shekels in gifts from rich tycoons, mostly from Arnon Milchin, in exchange for a variety of help with business and personal-legal initiatives. The charge itself is for acting in situations in which Netanyahu had a conflict of interest, since no actual quid pro quo could be proven. In Case 2000, Netanyahu was accused of working with Yediot and Yisrael Hayom to reduce Yisrael Hayom‘s competition with Yediot in exchange for positive coverage for Netanyahu in Yediot. The deal never went through, but the law has crimes of attempted bribery and breach of trust which can apply even if a deal does not go through. Mandelblit was never a fan of Case 2000 but decided he needed to charge Netanyahu with something once they indicted Yediot owner Arnon Nuni Mozes with bribery.Source
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