Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing three major bribery and corruption cases, and with early national elections that he called for just 40 days away, Bibi figured any possible indictments for a sitting PM would never come as he could say they were a direct effort to interfere in an election. He figured he had another term as Prime Minister in the bag.
Today he found out just how wrong he was.
Israel's attorney general announced Thursday that his office had indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges after a two-year investigation.
The prime minister faces one count of bribery and two counts of fraud and breach of trust.
Police have previously recommended indicting Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three different cases.
Police recommended an indictment in the case based on evidence collected that confidants of Netanyahu promoted regulatory changes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Bezeq. In exchange, they believe Netanyahu used his connections with Elovitch to receive positive press coverage on Bezeq's popular subsidiary news site, Walla. Police have said their investigation concluded that Netanyahu and Elovitch engaged in a "bribe-based relationship."
Police also recommended charges be brought against Elovitch, members of his family and members of his Bezeq management team.
Police have previously recommended indicting Netanyahu on corruption charges in two other cases. One involves accepting gifts from billionaire friends, and the second revolves around alleged offers of advantageous legislation for a major newspaper in return for favorable coverage.
Netanyahu, 69, who is serving his third consecutive term as prime minister and his fourth overall, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and called the various allegations against him a witch hunt aimed at removing him from office.
The attorney general's decision to publish his conclusions 39 days prior to the general election on April 9 is raising questions about what impact it can have on the outcome of the vote.
Israeli media reported Thursday that with just hours to go before Mandelblit's anticipated decision to indict Netanyahu, his Likud Party filed a petition to the Supreme Court to stop the announcement from happening before the election on the grounds that it would unfairly impact on Netanyahu's prospects of re-election. However, the court's spokesperson confirmed later in the afternoon that the petition was rejected.
The indictment marks the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime.
It'll be years before the case will be heard, of course. But an indicted politician running for leader of Israel is probably not going to be very successful. This puts the future of Israel very much up in the air. There's no way Bibi resigns, he's too much of an ass.
Where does Israel go from here? We'll see. Uncharted territory for sure.
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