On the 12th day of the testimony of State Witness Nir Hefetz, in a trial against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hefetz said, in response to questions from Adv. . “There is no chance that such an appointment will pass without Sarah’s approval. Netanyahu would not have had it from her if there had not been a green light for her,” he added.
Adv. Chen, who represents Shaul Alovich, began his cross-examination of the witness, after the cross-examination of Adv. Boaz Ben-Tzur, who represents Netanyahu, ended this morning.
Chen’s cross-examination opened with Cuff’s preoccupation with his personal affairs with the director general of the Ministry of Communications. “I remember he was one of the owners of Hapoel Jerusalem in basketball, and he wanted their games in Europe to be broadcast on Channel 20, and there were all kinds of problems with that,” he said. Hefetz confirmed that he was interested in joining the body. The communication had he got up.
Hefetz initially confirmed the relationship with Pilber regarding his personal affairs, but later reduced his involvement, noting that he acted on Netanyahu’s behalf most of the time, and that “the relationship was also friendly, and personal matters probably also arise.”
Chen: “Have you had matters unrelated to the mass of activity (on Netanyahu’s behalf)?
Hefetz: “These matters were marginal. I met with Pilber first and foremost about Benjamin Netanyahu’s affairs.”
“When I sit down with Elovich, and he sends me to Netanyahu to tell him what has been agreed with Momo (Shlomo Pilbag), and I am going to meet Momo to see that this is what happened, it could be that at that marginal meeting personal issues came up.”
Common Code: Putting cell phones aside as a conditional reflex
During the interrogation, Hefetz reported on a procedure that was customary in the environment of the former prime minister. Hefetz clarified that in all meetings in Netanyahu’s environment, it was customary for cell phones to be set aside. “There was no intention to hide anything,” he stressed. “It’s a conditioned reflex, it’s automatic. That the cell phones are not with us, it was routine and some of the codes were acceptable, and was not intended to hide illegal activity.”
Hefetz explained that the reason for this was the possibility of “listening to commercial entities or even foreign countries. Also because of journalists who did not want us to know what we were doing.”
*** Presumption of innocence: It should be emphasized that even after the indictment was filed against them, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaul and Iris Elowitz deny what was attributed to them, were not convicted of an offense, and have the presumption of innocence.