Outside the courthouse, he is without doubt one of the strongest males within the Middle East, overseeing Israel’s army marketing campaign in Gaza, its occupation of southern Lebanon and up to date strikes in Syria.
As he stepped right into a cramped and sweltering underground courtroom in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel morphed into the defendant in Case 67104-01-20 — charged with bribery, fraud and breach of belief.
Eight years after the police began investigating him and 4 years after his trial started, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister was taking the stand for the primary time to reply to accusations of corruption which have outlined and disrupted Israeli public life for almost a decade.
“Like everybody who is delivered to the witness stand, you might be charged with talking the reality, the entire fact and nothing however the fact,” stated Rivka Friedman-Feldman, considered one of three judges listening to the case.
An viewers of roughly 100 journalists, lawmakers, authorities ministers and attorneys craned their necks to catch his response.
“I’ve waited eight years for this second — to inform the reality, the reality as I keep in mind it,” replied Mr. Netanyahu, gripping the edges of a picket lectern as he stood to the left of the judges.
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