Benjamin Netanyahu corruption trial delayed on diplomatic and security grounds
An Israeli court has cancelled this week's hearings in Benjamin Netanyahu's long-running corruption trial, accepting a request made by the prime minister on classified diplomatic and security grounds.
'Following the explanations given … we partially accept the request and cancel at this stage Mr Netanyahu's hearings scheduled' for this week, the Jerusalem district court said in its ruling, published online by Netanyahu's Likud party.
The ruling said that new reasons provided by Netanyahu, the head of Israel's spy agency the Mossad and the military intelligence chief justified cancelling the hearings.
It comes after Donald Trump last week called for the case to be thrown out. In remarks on social media, the US president suggested the trial could interfere with Netanyahu's ability to join negotiations with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran, adding that the US was 'not going to stand' for the continued prosecution, prompting Netanyahu to thank him in a message on X.
In a social media post, Trump described the case against the Israeli premier as a 'witch hunt', saying the trial 'should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero'.
Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – all of which he denies. He has cast the trial against him as an orchestrated leftwing witch-hunt meant to topple a democratically elected rightwing leader.
In one of the cases, he and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewellery and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favours.
In two others, Netanyahu is accused of attempting to negotiate more favourable coverage from two Israeli media outlets. The prime minister has requested multiple postponements to the trial since it began in May 2020.
Netanyahu's lawyers had asked the court to excuse him from testifying over the next two weeks so he could focus on security issues after a ceasefire with Iran and amid ongoing fighting in Gaza where Israeli hostages are held.
They submitted the prime minister's schedule to the court to demonstrate 'the national need for the prime minister to devote all his time and energy to the political, national and security issues at hand'.
The court initially rejected the lawyers' request, but said in its ruling on Sunday that it had changed its judgment after hearing arguments from the prime minister and other senior officials.
A spokesperson for the Israeli prosecution declined to comment on Trump's post.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said last week that Trump 'should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country'.
Trump said Netanyahu was 'right now' negotiating a deal with Hamas, though neither leader provided details, and officials from both sides have voiced scepticism over prospects for a ceasefire soon.
On Friday, the Republican president told reporters he believed a ceasefire was close.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
35 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Clashes and arrests in Turkey over magazine cartoon allegedly depicting prophet Muhammad
Clashes erupted in Istanbul with police firing rubber bullets and teargas to disperse a mob on Monday after allegations that a satirical magazine had published a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad. The clashes occurred after Istanbul's chief prosecutor ordered the arrest of the editors at LeMan magazine on grounds it had published a cartoon that 'publicly insulted religious values'. The magazine's editor-in-chief, Tuncay Akgun, said the image had been misinterpreted. 'This cartoon is not a caricature of prophet Muhammad in any way,' he told Agence France-Presse. 'In this work, the name of a Muslim who was killed in the bombardments of Israel is fictionalised as Muhammad. More than 200 million people in the Islamic world are named Muhammad. '[It] has nothing to do with prophet Muhammad. We would never take such a risk.' As the news broke, several dozen angry protesters attacked a bar often frequented by LeMan staffers in downtown Istanbul, provoking angry scuffles with police, an AFP correspondent said. The scuffles quickly became clashes involving between 250 to 300 people, the correspondent said. Founded in 1991, LeMan is famed for its political satire and has long been the bane of conservatives, especially following its support for France's Charlie Hebdo after its Paris offices were attacked in 2015 by Islamist gunmen who killed 12 following the magazine's publication of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. The interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said on that X police had arrested the cartoonist responsible for the image as well as LeMan's graphic designer. 'The person named DP who made this vile drawing has been caught and taken into custody,' he wrote, adding: 'These shameless individuals will be held accountable before the law.' Others named in the arrest warrant were LeMan's editor-in-chief and its managing editor, media reports said. In a string of posts on X, LeMan defended the cartoon and said it had been deliberately misinterpreted to cause a provocation. 'The cartoonist wanted to portray the righteousness of the oppressed Muslim people by depicting a Muslim killed by Israel, he never intended to belittle religious values,' it said. 'We do not accept the stigma imposed on us because there is no depiction of our prophet. It takes a very malicious person to interpret the cartoon in this way." 'We apologise to our well-intentioned readers who we think were subjected to provocations.' The justice minister, Yilmaz Tunc, said an investigation had been opened on grounds of 'publicly insulting religious values'. 'Disrespect towards our beliefs is never acceptable,' he wrote on X. 'No freedom grants the right to make the sacred values of a belief the subject of ugly humour. The caricature or any form of visual representation of our prophet not only harms our religious values but also damages societal peace.' Istanbul's governor, Davut Gul, also lashed out at 'this mentality that seeks to provoke society by attacking our sacred values'. 'We will not remain silent in the face of any vile act targeting our nation's faith,' he said.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Trump's aid cut risks causing 14 million deaths, report finds
Donald Trump's move to cut most of the US funding towards foreign humanitarian aid could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to research published in The Lancet medical journal on Monday.A third of those at risk of premature deaths are children, the research Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in March that President Trump's administration had cancelled over 80% of all programmes at the US Agency for International Development, or USAID."For many low- and middle-income countries, the resulting shock would be comparable in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict," Davide Rasella, who co-authored the Lancet report, said in a statement. The funding cuts "risk abruptly halting - and even reversing - two decades of progress in health among vulnerable populations," added Rasella, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global report comes as dozens of world leaders are meeting in the Spanish city of Seville this week for a United Nations-led aid conference, the biggest one in a back over data from 133 nations, the team of researchers estimated that USAID funding had prevented 91 million deaths in developing countries between 2001 and also used modelling to project how funding being slashed by 83% – the figure announced by the US government earlier this year – could affect death cuts could lead to more than 14 million avoidable deaths by 2030, the projections found. That number included over 4.5 million children under the age of five – or around 700,000 child deaths a to Rubio, there were still approximately 1,000 remaining programmes that would be administered "more effectively" under the US State Department and in consultation with the situation on the ground has not been improving, according to UN month, a UN official told the BBC that hundreds of thousands of people were "slowly starving" in Kenyan refugee camps after US funding cuts reduced food rations to their lowest ever a hospital in Kakuma, in northwestern Kenya, the BBC witnessed a baby who could barely move and was showing signs of malnutrition, including having parts of her skin wrinkled and peeling.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Asian shares rise, dollar weaker as US bill debate lingers; gold jumps
TOKYO, July 1 (Reuters) - Asian shares crept higher and the dollar languished near multi-year lows on Tuesday as markets awaited a vote over U.S. President Donald Trump's landmark tax and spending legislation. Global shares reached an intraday record on Monday on trade optimism, but a marathon debate in the Senate over a bill estimated to add $3.3 trillion to the United States' debt pile weighed on sentiment. Japan's Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab gauge of shares sank as much as 1.1% as the yen climbed. Oil fell for a second consecutive session and gold advanced. A vote on Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill had been expected during the Asian trading day on Tuesday, but debate raged on over a long series of amendments by Republicans and the minority Democrats. Trump wants the bill passed before the July 4 Independence Day holiday. As global trade negotiators scramble to get deals done before Trump's tariff deadlines, investors are also anticipating key U.S. labour market data on Thursday. "Trade is front and centre this week, but alongside that, we've obviously got the fate of the 'One Big Beautiful Bill', which is currently being debated in the Senate," said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at the National Australia Bank. Payrolls data later in the week "does have significant bearing, I think, on sentiment towards the potential timing of Fed rate cuts," he added in a podcast. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), opens new tab was up 0.5%, led by South Korea's Kospi gauge (.KS11), opens new tab, rising 1.8%. The dollar dropped 0.3% to 143.62 yen . The greenback slid 0.1% to $1.1794 against the European single currency and earlier touched $1.1798, the weakest since September 2021. U.S. crude dipped 0.4% to $64.86 a barrel, weighed by expectations of an OPEC+ output hike in August. Spot gold rose 0.5% to $3,319.55 per ounce. Pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures were up 0.1% at while German DAX futures were up 0.2%.
