PM’s Lawyers Upbeat After Second Day of Hearings

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏’s lawyers gave a positive report on the second day of pre-indictment hearings on Thursday.

The session focused this time on Case 4000, in which PM Netanyahu allegedly maintained an illicit quid pro quo with Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of Bezeq telecom.

It matched Wednesday’s hearing — another eleven hours of evidentiary presentations and argumentation by Netanyahu’s lawyers facing Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and a battery of prosecutors and other officials.

Attorney Amit Haddad, a member of the defense team, was quoted by Arutz Sheva as saying that “On Sunday, we will start arguing against case 1000. These three cases should eventually be closed.”

At the end of Wednesday’s session, Hadad proclaimed, “We are surprising them” with new legal arguments and perspectives on the facts in dispute, which the prosecution did not expect, The Times of Israel reported.

Lawyer Yossi Ashkenazi said that Mandelblit “listened intently” to the new arguments and was encouraged by the fact that Mandelblit “gave feedback” to the lawyers.

Netanyahu himself was not present at the hearing.