Mandelblit: I signed the indictment against Netanyahu; defense: you did not sign

In depth

During his testimony in the trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit was asked about the police investigation of Shlomo Filber and his ties to Israel Hayom. Mandelblit testified that he did not approve investigative directions examining Netanyahu's relations with the newspaper and its former editor Amos Regev, and admitted that the police's questions on the matter surprised him. According to Channel 14, Netanyahu's attorney Amit Hadad argued that the police opened an independent investigative track without authority.

Clashes in the courtroom continued over the amended indictment in Case 4000. Mandelblit admitted that he did not review the evidentiary material underlying the document but read the list of events, and the judges limited the prosecution so that the witness would be questioned only in a re-examination. The defense claimed that Mandelblit's signature on the amended indictment was copied from the original document, but Mandelblit argued that this raises no legal problem.

Attorney Hadad presented a document recording meetings between Mandelblit and Shlomo Filber at the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016, at which topics related to the Walla website were raised. Mandelblit confirmed that he met Filber by chance in a supermarket, but argued that it was not a planned meeting and that he does not think he reported it to the investigation team.