Court Refuses Netanyahu’s Request to Delay Trial

The Yerushalayim District Court said Tuesday that the trial of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will begin as scheduled, next Tuesday, March 17.

“The grounds of the request by counsel on behalf of accused number one and the responses of the other accused are insufficient to justify adjournment of the hearing,” Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman of the District Court stated in dismissing the application by Netanyahu’s defense lawyers for a postponement of the opening of their client’s trial.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu’s lawyer sought a 45-day delay in the opening of the trial because he had not received all of the investigation material relating to the cases in which Netanyahu is charged. Counsel for the other defendants joined the application.

Judge Friedman-Feldman, who will head the three-judge panel in the case, explained her decision by saying that in any case the accused were not required to answer the charges at the hearing set down, and that there was therefore no reason to hold it from taking place on time.