Accused of corruption, Netanyahu testifies at his trial

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial opened in Tel Aviv, with the judge ordering him to testify throughout the long-awaited proceedings.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered a Tel Aviv courthouse on Tuesday to take the stand for the first time in a long-running corruption trial that will likely force him to juggle between the courtroom and war room for weeks.

— CNN (@cnn.com) 2024-12-10T09:24:58.799Z

Indicted in 2019, Benjamin Netanyahu is the country’s first sitting PM to be charged with corruption, fraud and breach of trust.

Netanyahu has rejected the charges against him and pleaded not guilty.

On the first day of the trial, held at an undisclosed location, he and his lawyers claimed to be victims of a left-wing relentlessness, accusing journalists of having hounded him for years because of his policies.

According to them, this is not an investigation into a crime, but a personal forward against him.

Netanyahu is accused of granting advantages to certain media outlets, notably Bezeq Telecom, offering special services to the company worth an estimated nearly two billion shekels, in trade for favorable media coverage for him and his wife.

He also reportedly negotiated favorable media support with the owner of a newspaper, in trade for measures to slow the growth of a competitor.

Recently, judges demanded that he testify several times during the course of this trial, forcing him to spend the next few weeks in court, while asserting that he is able to continue his executive duties in parallel.