Netanyahu's attorney presented evidence of correspondence between the prosecution’s key witness, former Walla CEO, and a number of public figures, including Lieberman
Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of media giant Bezeq, which owns Walla, is charged with bribery, obstruction of justice and obstruction of the investigation in the case against Netanyahu
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May. 11, 2021
The corruption trial of Benjamin Netanyahu resumed Tuesday, with the cross-examination of a former CEO of a leading Israeli news site over allegations of biased coverage in favor of the prime minister.
Jack Chen, the lawyer representing former Bezeq owner Shaul Elovitch, is interrogating former Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua, a key witness in Case 4000, the Bezeq-Walla bribery case.
Yeshua testified on Monday that he unequivocally did not believe that skewing coverage to favor Netanyahu was criminal at first.
He told the court on Monday he changed his mind after a meeting in late 2016 when he was asked by Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in Bezeq, which owned Walla, to destroy evidence of the tendentious reporting. He referred to that encounter as the “obstruction [of justice] meeting.”
Ilan Yeshua, the former CEO, testified that he was subjected to pressure from his boss, Shaul Elovitch, to slant news coverage in favor of Netanyahu in a bid to obtain regulatory concessions from the government