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Attorney General to decide within days if he will delay indictment decision

[ssba]

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will decide within days whether or not he will announce his decision on the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption cases before the April 9 election, the Justice Ministry said on Monday.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s defence lawyers met with the Attorney General and State Prosecutor, Shai Nitzan, to discuss the possibility of postponing the Attorney General’s indictment decision, and summoning Netanyahu to a pre-indictment hearing, until after the April 9 elections.

According to Mandelblit’s statements, the Prime Minister’s legal team” “Presented their arguments at length about the date of the publication of the Attorney General’s decision … and will be considered as is customary. The Attorney General will formulate his position in the coming days and it will be delivered to the defence lawyers as soon as possible”. Mandelblit had told Channel 12 News at the weekend that he would not delay an announcement of charges, saying that the fact that Israel is holding early elections “is none of my business … It’s not something that affects me”.

Netanyahu’s legal team, which has been expanded to include retired judges Oded Mudrik and Sefi Alon, said it was “working to ensure a fair playing field for the prime minister, who is facing elections”.

Netanyahu is not required to resign if indicted before the elections, pending a pre-trial hearing, and he has made it clear he does not intend to.

A new opinion poll by Army Radio this morning shows that Likud’s predicted seats in the next Knesset would decrease from 29 to 25 if Netanyahu is indicted before the elections.

A report by Channel 12 News last night detailed alleged efforts by Netanyahu during the 2013 election campaign to force Walla to publish stories discrediting his right-wing rival Naftali Bennett. Dozens of text messages reportedly sent by Walla and Bezeq-owner Shaul Elovitch to Walla CEO, Ilan Yeshua, suggest that Netanyahu was behind a concerted campaign to improve his own public standing by smearing Bennett with accusations against both him and his family. Netanyahu’s ties to Elovitch have been the subject of ‘Case 4000,’ in which police have recommended the Prime Minister be indicted for bribery.