Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial continued in the Jerusalem District Court yesterday, and the hearing dealt with the question of whether the materials extracted from the cell phone of state witness Shlomo Pilber, former director general of the Ministry of Communications, were included in the search warrant issued by the court.
Netanyahu’s defense attorney, Adv. Boaz Ben-Zur, noted that the order in Pilber’s case was issued as part of the “Bezeq affair,” which was investigated by the Securities Authority and from which the 4000 case was born.
He added that there is no connection between the charge of bribery attributed to Netanyahu and the Bezeq case. According to him, the power of the Securities Authority also confirmed that this was a “separate affair, another, a new affair with other and additional suspicions.”
These remarks were also joined by Adv. Jacques Chen, representing the defendant Shaul Alovich, former owner of Bezeq and the Walla! Website. A systematic, consistent and lengthy court is a material defect that is hard to imagine. In February 2018, the police issued new orders, because then those who understood that a new order was needed, because it was not the same case.
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“But this is a late order, after all the horses escaped from the stable, without informing the court about what has already been done. No document was presented showing that the 4000 case is part of the Bezeq case investigation. “.
Ben-Zur added: “According to the ruling, consent cannot cure an injury. Nor are the conditions of the ruling here for searching with consent. Searching computer materials requires an order. Point. Moreover, there is harm here to third parties. “I do not know about the spyware that was used against him. In addition, his consent is from that moment on.”
Advocate Amit Haddad, who also represents Netanyahu, added: “If it is possible to copy the entire phone once and then search it all the time, as the State Attorney’s Office believes, why does the order say that a permit for continued intrusion is required? The answer is clear: the law is that the search for the copied material is limited to 30 days only. “
The judges decided that the hearing that will take place today on the issue will be closed to the media, and in the presence of the State Attorney’s Office only, and will deal with materials that were accidentally produced from Pilber’s telephone.