Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured his supporters on Monday that he would continue leading the Likud party, and vehemently denied that he had agreed to accept a finding of moral turpitude as part of a plea bargain, amid reports of a possible plea agreement with the State Prosecutor’s office.
The former prime minister is on trial in Jerusalem District Court on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
“Citizens of Israel, in recent days, you’ve proven once again that I’m not alone and that millions of you are with me. You’ve deeply moved me. I’ll keep leading Likud and the national camp. The entire public sees what’s happening in court and how the investigation against me was led. That should have been enough to close the cases against me now, but it still hasn’t happened,” Netanyahu said.
“In recent days, false claims have been reported in the media about things that I have purportedly agreed to, for example the claim that I had agreed to moral turpitude. It’s simply untrue,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu’s announcement came after his lawyers received a message from Attorney General Mendelblit that negotiations with Mendelblit would not be possible and that they would have to wait for the appointment of his successor.
Last week, a senior official in the State Prosecutor’s Office said that no plea deal would be made in Netanyahu’s corruption cases without him accepting a finding of moral turpitude.
Netanyahu’s plea-deal dilemma: Does get-out-of-jail mean ending his political career?
Why is Netanyahu suddenly rushing to secure a plea deal? Haaretz explains
Precedent dictates that Netanyahu’s plea deal must include jailtime
Sources close to Netanyahu and Mendelblit estimated that the deal will be realized until the attorney general’s retirement at the end of January, and thus negotiations will continue with Mendelblit’s temporary successor, State Prosecutor Amit Aisman.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish