TEL AVIV – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial resumed on Sunday after a break of more than a month, as growing protests continued over his handling of Israel’s coronavirus crisis.
The trial will officially resume in January and witnesses will be heard three times a week, the court decided on Sunday.
The Israeli leader’s lawyers requested a six-month delay to prepare his strategy. They suggested that it would be difficult to assess the veracity of witnesses with masks, currently mandatory in Israel.
Netanyahu, 70, was not required to attend Sunday’s session at the Jerusalem District Court, where he appeared on May 24 at the opening of the trial.
Netanyahu, the serving Israeli Prime Minister who was tried, was charged in November and has been charged with one count of bribery and three counts of fraud and breach of trust in three long-standing corruption cases.
He denies wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a politically orchestrated “witch hunt”.
If convicted, Netanyahu could face up to 10 years in prison for bribery and a maximum period of three years for each count of fraud and breach of trust. However, legal experts have suggested that he is unlikely to be sentenced to maximum sentences, even if he is found guilty.
The trial resumed after another night of protests in Israeli cities as public anger grew at high unemployment and frustration at the government’s response to the pandemic.
Police used water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters around Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence on Saturday night.
In Tel Aviv, the commercial center of Israel, thousands gathered to demand better state aid from companies affected by the pandemic. Hundreds of police were stationed at both rallies as protests the previous weekend had turned violent.
In a protest Saturday in the city’s Charles Clore Park, police with riot gear stormed the demonstration and took hundreds of protesters out by truck, according to a police spokesman.
After coronavirus cases skyrocketed in recent weeks, Israel again imposed radical restrictions on Friday. It had contained its outbreak in late May, but the government said Friday that gyms and exercise studios will be closed to the public and that shops, beauty salons, museums and tourist attractions will be closed on weekends.
The restrictions have hit the economy and have pushed unemployment to more than 20 percent, compared with 3.9 percent before the outbreak, according to the Associated Press. With a population of around 8.6 million, Israel has reported nearly 50,000 cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic with more than 400 deaths through Sunday. There are currently around 28,000 active patients.
Netanyahu addressed his cabinet on Sunday about a billion-dollar framework to approve grants for citizens of Israel to stimulate the economy, according to a government adviser.
Paul Goldman reported from Tel Aviv and Isobel van Hagen from London.
Reuters contributed
