The judges of the Jerusalem District Court ruled this afternoon (Tuesday) that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's testimony will begin on December 2 of this year.
Netanyahu requested about two weeks ago to postpone his testimony to March 25, partly due to the ongoing war in Gaza. The request means a six-month break between the end of the prosecution case and the beginning of the defense case. In his request, Netanyahu mentioned the change of lawyers, in light of Attorney Ben Tzur's departure from the case, and the fact that 278 meetings were held as part of the prosecution case.
The prosecution opposed the request and demanded that the prime minister's testimony begin immediately after the holidays.
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The judges' decision stated: "The starting point for the discussion is that this is an unusually complex and broad-ranging case. At the same time, there is a substantial public interest, which we have emphasized in previous decisions, in advancing the procedure as much as possible.".
It was further written that "this interest also coincides with an interest that most of the defendants expressed, in preventing a trial by ordeal. We took into account the considerations that defendant No. 1 expressed in his arguments, including the existence of prosecution witnesses whose testimony the prosecutor waived, and to whom the defense was prevented from contacting for a significant period of time; the change of representation of defendant 1 in the first charge; the possibility of preparing the Prime Minister to testify during the war. Alongside this, we took into account the period of time that the defense had until now to prepare for the hearing.".
The judges noted: "We also took note of the defense's intention to complete its arguments on the issue of defense of justice. In this context, we note that the submission of the completion of the argument took a significant period of time, and that it is expected that the submission of the state's response will require a very significant period of time, estimated in months.
""Under these circumstances, and considering that the law allows a hearing on the claim of defense of justice at any time, there is no reason to delay the beginning of the defense case until the hearing on the claim of defense of justice has been exhausted. It goes without saying that we do not thereby express any opinion on the finality of the said claim.".
