A tense day in the cross-examination of Hadas Klein as part of the Alef case. Attorney Amit Haddad, representing former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, began the cross-examination process today (Tuesday). The conversation between the two has often risen to high tones, with Klein scolding sharply that they will not raise their voices against her and that she is not the accused in the case.
As you may recall, Klein’s main testimony began last week, in which she recounted a large quantity of champagne cigars and other gifts delivered on behalf of businessmen Arnon Milchen and James Packer, with whom Klein worked.
Even before the investigation began, a representative of the State Attorney’s Office stood up and asked Haddad to clarify that his investigation is not based on information derived from things Klein said to Adv. Boaz Ben-Zur, who previously represented her and now represents Netanyahu.
At the beginning of his interrogation, Haddad made it clear that he intended to show that the things Klein said in her main testimony were not true, and that he would prove things clearly. Haddad’s tongue was sharp and Klein on her part also defended sharply.
During his interrogation, Haddad pointed out three main points. The first of which is the fact that throughout her interrogations Klein was not asked to present investigators with information from her telephone or e-mail. Adv. Haddad showed in court that the police issued a search and seizure order in Klein’s home, including the computerized material, but despite this, the police never searched her home and did not take computers or telephones. Adv. Haddad also pointed out that Klein also came to her investigations. Without her telephones, and was not even asked to present them to investigators.
Klein explained that the messages she talked about the investigators were not on her phone because she replaced a large number of devices, after those were destroyed. Regarding the multiple replacement reason, Klein said that “Packer had all kinds of fears and anxieties and he would throw phones, or throw them in the pool when an iPhone falls to the floor unprotected, the screen breaks, and we never fix it. We always bought a new one.” “And you did not transfer the messages from phone to phone? And what about the automatic backup of WhatsApp?” Haddad asked. “I did not send messages, and the backup of WhatsApp can be turned off. Even today, it does not back up WhatsApp in the cloud,” Klein replied.
Advocate Haddad even hinted that Klein and Milchen were not asked to present their messages and emails because they were granted a kind of immunity from the prosecution, and presented a letter sent at the time by Adv. Ben Tzur on behalf of Milchen that if he was accused of bribery he would feel cheated. Klein also denied this claim.
A second point that Haddad touched on was the matter of gifts between Packer and Milchen and Netanyahu. Haddad claimed that the amount of gifts presented by the prosecution and understood from Klein’s remarks was excessive, and that the total gifts did not exceed NIS 200,000. He even claimed that on behalf of Klein an Excel report was prepared summarizing the cost of the gifts, and that this report, had it been seized by the police, would have revealed the true extent of the deaths.
At the same time, Haddad claimed that despite Klein’s statement that the giving of the gifts was a unilateral matter, there were cases in which the Netanyahu couple gave gifts to the Packer and Milchen families. Haddad presented a screenshot of an email that Packer wrote to Klein, which Klein passed on to Sarah Netanyahu, in which he asks her to thank Sarah for the exciting gift she gave him. In another photo presented by Adv. Haddad, Amanda Milchen was seen next to Sarah Netanyahu, when he said that the necklace and pendant that Milchen wore were given to her by Sarah Netanyahu. Klein replied that this was possible, but she did not remember the things.
A third point that Haddad touched on was the relationship between Klein and Sarah Netanyahu, when he claimed that in contrast to the way things were presented in the main investigation between the two women, a friendship existed. To this end, Haddad presented a number of correspondences in which Klein writes messages to Netanyahu, including “kisses,” “love,” etc. “There is no doubt that Sarah Netanyahu has good qualities of compassion. When my father got sick she talked to me and I remember it, “Klein replied, but explained that” I also told her we were not friends. You write words bigger than the truth because you work at it. “