Netanyahu: Undemoratic for hearing on my cases to happen before election - The Jerusalem Post - Israel News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a news conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil December 30, 2018. (photo credit: TANIA REGO/COURTESY OF AGENCIA BRASIL/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

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Holding a pre-indictment hearing on his investigations before the elections on April 9 would be deleterious to democracy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.

“The hearing doesn’t end until you hear my side, and it doesn’t make sense to open the hearing process before the election if you can’t finish it before the election,” Netanyahu said in a press conference in Rio de Janeiro.

“Imagine what would happen if a prime minister was deposed before the end of a hearing, and then, at the end of the hearing, [the attorney-general] decides to close the case,” he added. “It’s absurd. It would cause terrible harm to democracy. In a democracy, who will lead is determined according to the polls and not a partial legal process.”

Police have recommended that Netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges in three different cases, and Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit plans to make decisions on all of them at once. Mandelblit said in the past week that the timing of his decision will not be impacted by the election.

Netanyahu said he will not resign if Mandelblit decides to hold a hearing, because “Israel is a country of laws, and according to the law, the prime minister doesn’t have to resign during a hearing process.”

Asked if he thinks the legal establishment is trying to get him, Netanyahu said: “I hope not. That’s why we have laws. Decisions aren’t made based on partial legal processes.”

Speaking at a conference sponsored by the Calcalist financial newspaper, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said: “I always say I hope his cases are closed and we can go back to functioning as usual and won’t have to answer all these questions. My opinion remains that certainly, until a final decision by the attorney-general after a hearing, we don’t have to do anything… By law, the prime minister can remain until he is convicted with a final verdict. Rationality dictates that the decision of one person, the attorney-general, cannot bring down a government.”

Knesset State Control Committee chairwoman Shelly Yacimovich interpreted Netanyahu’s remarks as a threat to Mandelblit.

“Netanyahu’s audacious comments are trying to challenge the authority of all the branches of the rule of law and endanger democracy,” she said. “The threatening remark that the attorney-general must not decide before the election is a test for all parties across the political spectrum. Whomever does not say explicitly that they will not sit in a government with someone in a criminal process that has made so much progress is permitting corruption out of purely political calculations.”

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said that Netanyahu's remarks are "morally bankrupt and proof that he has lost control of the brakes and the only thing he cares about is to be saved from his criminal cases, not the good of the country."

Earlier this week, Israel Hayom reported that Netanyahu and the Likud plan to launch a negative campaign against Mandelblit if the prime minister is indicted before the election. Netanyahu’s spokesman strongly denied the report, and his lawyer wrote a letter to Mandelblit denying it.

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