A request for a delay by attorneys for former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other defendants in his ongoing corruption trial was rejected by an Israeli Court on Monday, and the trial is slated to continue as scheduled, Zionist media reported.
Israeli attorneys filed a petition calling for a pause following an explosive report Monday morning that said the Israeli occupation police used the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to hack into the phones of a wide range of public figures — including associates and family members of Netanyahu as well as multiple people currently involved in the trial — without any judicial oversight or approval.
On Friday, the so-called “Jerusalem District Court” gave state prosecutors until Tuesday to answer questions from the defense about police use of spyware in the investigation into the former Israeli premier.
Attorneys for Netanyahu and other defendants in the case have demanded to know exactly what data was obtained, how it was used and whether others involved in the trial were also targeted in the operation, among other questions. Prosecutors have said they are examining the matter.
According to the report, police hacked the phones of former Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua; former Communications Ministry directors general Shlomo Filber and Avi Berger; Iris Elovitch, the wife of Shaul Elovitch, the former controlling shareholder of Bezeq, who are both defendants in Case 4000; former Bezeq CEOs Dudu Mizrachi and Stella Hendler; former Walla editor-in-chief Aviram Elad, and other journalists at Walla.
The report published Monday, weeks after the original Calcalist report that first exposed police use of such tactics, also said that Avner Netanyahu, the son of the former prime minister, and Netanyahu advisers Yonatan Urich and Topaz Luk had been targeted. Avner Netanyahu’s phone was said to have been hacked due to police suspicions that his mother, Sara, used it.
Meanwhile on Monday, Israeli Public Security Minister Omer Barlev announced that he was moving to establish a commission to look into the explosive report.
“I have decided to set up a government-appointed commission of examination to investigate in depth the violation of the civil rights and privacy of citizens in the years in question,” Barlev said.
Source: Israeli media
