Israel’s Netanyahu faces key witness in court By Reuters

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in courtroom on Monday to face a key prosecution witness in his corruption trial.

Netanyahu, who served as prime minister for 12 years till June, has pleaded not responsible to expenses of bribery, breach of belief and fraud in instances that centre on alleged regulatory favours he awarded to media tycoons in return for constructive press protection and receipt of items, together with cigars and champagne.

Netanyahu, now opposition chief, smiled below his black face masks as he walked into the Jerusalem District courtroom to listen to the testimony of his former spokesman and shut adviser Nir Hefetz, one in every of a small group of ex-aides to show state’s witness towards the nation’s first premier to be criminally charged whereas nonetheless in workplace.

“Netanyahu spends not less than as a lot as his time on media as he spends on safety issues, together with on issues an outsider would contemplate nonsense,” Hefetz advised the courtroom.

Netanyahu, 72, just isn’t required to attend the trial hearings and he has made few courtroom appearances. He made no remark to reporters as slogans shouted outdoors on the street by a cluster of his supporters wafted into the courtroom who confronted off with a small group of anti-Netanyahu protesters.

Netanyahu’s trial has been a polarising challenge for Israelis. His loyal supporters bemoan it as a left-wing witch-hunt that focused a well-liked right-wing chief, whereas his staunch critics hail it because the triumph of regulation over grave authorities corruption that had plunged Israel into two years of political turmoil.

After 4 inconclusive elections, Netanyahu’s former right-wing ally Naftali Bennett in June unseated Israel’s longest- serving chief by forming a patchwork coalition authorities of rightist, centrist, left-wing and Muslim Arab events.