Former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit testified Thursday that he did not know police were seeking wide-ranging information about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from his former aide Ari Harow, after the defense presented a transcript in which a senior investigator described the arrangement as “like a marketplace.”
On the fifth day of Mandelblit’s testimony at the Jerusalem District Court, defense attorney Amit Hadad read out remarks by Koresh Bar-Nur, then head of the police’s national fraud investigations unit, to Harow, who later became a state’s witness in Cases 1000 and 2000.
“This is like a marketplace,” Bar-Nur told Harow, according to the transcript. “Tell me what you have from the place where you worked,” a reference to the Prime Minister’s Office. “You give, I give.”
According to B’Hadrei Haredim, Bar-Nur also told Harow he wanted to know “what you give, what improper things,” adding: “I need a list of things from you, merchandise.”
Hadad asked Mandelblit whether he had authorized such an arrangement. The prosecution objected to the question, but the objection was overruled. “Clearly that’s not my wording,” Mandelblit said. Presiding Judge Oded Shaham then asked whether this was what he had in mind when he gave his approval.
Hadad pressed further, asking whether Mandelblit had known that police were asking Harow for information on any alleged wrongdoing by Netanyahu over a period of years, rather than only on the matters approved for investigation. “No,” Mandelblit replied.
The exchange was part of a broader defense effort to show that investigators acted beyond the scope of what Mandelblit approved. Earlier in his testimony, Mandelblit confirmed that Netanyahu was never warned during police questioning that he was suspected of bribery, although he was ultimately indicted on that charge. He has also acknowledged that serious investigative steps were taken without his approval, while maintaining that not every police action required his sign-off and that none of his decisions in the cases were made under pressure.
Mandelblit’s testimony has drawn sharp reactions. As JFeed reported, MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) said on October 21 that Mandelblit and the prosecution “should be behind bars.”
Others doubt the testimony will change the outcome. On October 13, Prof. Yuval Elbashan said he did not believe the indictments against Netanyahu would be dismissed, arguing that the judges could not accept such an outcome “because if they accept it, it means the prosecution and the state attorney’s office collapse.”
Mandelblit is expected to testify for at least several more days before the defense case continues.
