Could further sessions in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trial be cancelled? Attorney Amit Hadad, Netanyahu's defence counsel, notified the court on Monday that he also represents the prime minister before the Gronis Commission investigating the submarine affair, and presented a list of dates when he will be required to attend the commission's hearings.
The schedule includes at least 20 dates between 1 November and 31 December, seven in November and 13 more in December.
The issue arose after attorney Sharon Kleinman, who represents Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Noni Mozes and also former Navy commander Ram Rothberg, requested that no hearings in Case 2000 of the Netanyahu trial be held on days when the commission hears testimony from those under caution.
Hadad has now informed the court that he too is required to participate in the commission's proceedings. "The implication is that the undersigned is also required to be present at the commission hearings listed above, particularly on days when the prime minister will be required to testify before the commission and on which the undersigned will be required to cross-examine additional witnesses," he wrote.
He also addressed the difficulty in scheduling witnesses in the Netanyahu trial: "To this must be added, as the honourable court is aware, that the task of bringing witnesses is complex in any case. The restriction on the identity of witnesses and the subjects of their testimony makes this task even more difficult."
At the end of his submission, Hadad did not explicitly request that overlapping hearings be cancelled, but rather left the matter to the judges' discretion: "In the circumstances that have arisen, the undersigned brings the facts to the honourable court for a decision."
The notification comes about two weeks after the judges criticised the pace at which the defence is bringing witnesses and made clear that the trial must move forward. According to the court, the defence has spoken of some 200 witnesses as part of the defence case.
