The trial of the Israeli prime minister’s wife Sara Netanyahu and the office’s deputy director-general Ezra Saidoff is reportedly to begin on Sunday afternoon at Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.
Hebrew sources said the court president Avital Chen will hear prosecutors’ requests for the case to be heard by a panel of three judges rather than just one as provided by law.
Sara Netanyahu’s attorneys oppose having a larger panel hear the case.
Two conditions set by the prosecutors for a plea bargain included admission of guilt by Netanyahu and a return of funds which the indictment says she received under fraudulent terms. Netanyahu insists she is innocent and won’t agree to these terms.
Prosecutors have detailed in the indictment that from 2010 to 2013 Netanyahu ordered residence workers to order meals from restaurants at a cost of 360000 shekels ($100000 at current exchange rates) in violation of regulations forbidding the order of catering services while the residence has a cook in its employ.
The investigation of the residences case found that Netanyahu was aware of this ban and ordered employees to conceal the fact they had hired a cook “so that this wouldn’t be exposed by the office’s accountants thereby receiving double funding at the treasury’s expense to pay for restaurant meals at the residence.” For this reason the cook was described as a member of the cleaning staff. Sara Netanyahu had scolded former house foreman Meni Naftali for mentioning her to staff in the PMO.
“The accused have made various claims they know aren’t true and which they themselves don’t believe to be true” the indictment says. “Via these claims they have accepted fraud by having the state coffers pay hundreds of thousands of shekels. Aggravated circumstances are expressed in the fact that the sums were extracted continuously and methodically on the basis of inaccurate claims”
The maximum penalty for breach of trust is three years and for fraud under aggravated circumstances it is five years. Courts however tend to give lighter sentences. Prosecutors believe that if Sara Netanyahu is convicted she will be sentenced to community service.
In anticipation of Sunday’s session Sara Netanyahu’s attorneys said the following: “For the first time in history a leader’s spouse has been indicted over macaroni and take away food. . . . The indictment is based on an illegal procedure which in essence doesn’t exist.”
The prime minister’s spouse is also suspected of accepting a bribe along with her husband in Case 4000 (Bezek-Walla).
