JERUSALEM, Nov 22 (AP) \u2014 A one-time confidante to Benjamin Netanyahu began testifying against him Monday in the former Israeli prime minister\u2019s corruption trial in Jerusalem.
\nNir Hefetz, a former spokesman for Netanyahu, is a key prosecution witness expected to deliver critical testimony in the trial, which revolves around accusations that Netanyahu committed fraud, breach of trust and accepted bribes. The former premier, now opposition leader, denies any wrongdoing.
\nHefetz left a long career in journalism in 2009 to work as a spokesman for Netanyahu\u2019s government, and in 2014 became the Netanyahu family\u2019s spokesman and adviser. In 2018, after he was arrested in connection with one of Netanyahu\u2019s corruption cases, Hefetz signed a state\u2019s witness deal and provided investigators with recordings of conversations with Netanyahu and his family.
\nHis testimony was delayed by a week after Netanyahu\u2019s defense attorneys requested time to review new evidence. The information presented last week alleged that Netanyahu\u2019s wife, Sara, had accepted an expensive bracelet as a gift from two billionaire friends, Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer.
\nNetanyahu appeared in the Jerusalem District Court Monday morning flanked by fellow Likud party politicians.
\nHe\u2019s the defendant in three separate cases. The first alleges that Netanyahu received gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy friends, including Milchan and Packer.
\nIn the second case, Netanyahu is accused of orchestrating positive coverage in a major Israeli paper in exchange for promoting legislation that would have harmed the news outlet\u2019s chief rival, a free pro-Netanyahu daily.
\nThe third, nicknamed Case 4000, alleges that Netanyahu promoted legislation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the owner of Israeli telecom giant Bezeq in exchange for positive coverage on its Walla news site.
\nIn his opening testimony, Hefetz said that Netanyahu was a \u201ccontrol freak\u201d when it comes to his public image, and that \u201chis control over everything relating to media matters and in his social media channels could not be higher.\u201d
\nThe former prime minister long rejected calls to step down from the country\u2019s leadership after he was indicted in 2019. He used the podium as prime minister to repeatedly lash out at law enforcement, the media and the courts for launching a \u201cwitch-hunt\u201d against him.
\nHis trial formally began in 2020, while the country was embroiled in a two-year-long political crisis that saw four repeated elections, with voters deadlocked over Netanyahu\u2019s leadership and indictment. The trial is expected to take years.
\nEarlier this year, Netanyahu and his long-ruling Likud party were ousted from power after a coalition united in their opposition to the long-serving prime minister formed a government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JERUSALEM, Nov 22 (AP) \u2014 A one-time confidante to Benjamin Netanyahu began testifying against him Monday in the former Israeli prime minister\u2019s corruption trial in Jerusalem. Nir Hefetz, a former spokesman for Netanyahu, is a key prosecution witness expected to deliver critical testimony in the trial, which revolves around accusations that Netanyahu committed fraud, breach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-177441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}