Judges overseeing Netanyahu’s corruption trial again ask prosecutors to drop the bribery charge from the indictment.By World Israel News StaffThe judges in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial again urged prosecutors on Monday to reconsider the bribery charge against him in Case 4000, saying their concerns over the strength of the charge remain unchanged even after hearing Netanyahu’s testimony.The renewed recommendation came during a hearing at the Jerusalem District Court over whether to accelerate the defense stage of the long-running trial to five hearings a week.Netanyahu attended the hearing even though he was not required to appear, joining his lawyer Amit Hadad in opposing the court’s proposed schedule.Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman, who heads the three-judge panel alongside Moshe Bar-Am and Oded Shaham, said the court had not planned to raise the bribery issue at this stage, but that both sides had referred to it during the hearing.“We did not intend to address this now, but since both sides referred to it, we note that our position as we expressed it in June 2023 remains in force,” Friedman-Feldman said.The judges first made the recommendation three years ago, after hearing central prosecution testimony in the Bezeq-Walla case.At the time, they reportedly told the sides that there were “difficulties in establishing the bribery offense” and suggested that prosecutors consider dropping the charge while continuing with fraud and breach of trust allegations.The attorney general and state prosecution rejected that recommendation in 2023 and continued to pursue the bribery count.Monday’s statement is more significant because it came after Netanyahu completed his own testimony, including cross-examination, in the corruption trial.Netanyahu is charged with bribery only in Case 4000, the most serious of the three cases against him.Prosecutors allege that while serving as communications minister, he advanced regulatory decisions benefiting Bezeq controlling shareholder Shaul Elovitch by hundreds of millions of shekels in exchange for favorable coverage on the Walla news site, which Elovitch owned.Netanyahu, Elovitch and Elovitch’s wife Iris deny wrongdoing.The Prime Minister also faces fraud and breach of trust charges in Case 1000, involving gifts from wealthy benefactors, and Case 2000, involving alleged negotiations with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon “Noni” Mozes over favorable coverage in exchange for legislation that would harm a rival newspaper. Netanyahu denies all the charges and says the cases are politically motivated.The hearing also exposed growing tension over the trial’s schedule. The judges are seeking to speed up proceedings, apparently in an effort to complete the case before Friedman-Feldman’s expected retirement in March 2028. The defense warned that the proposed five-day-a-week schedule would make it impossible to prepare properly and could force lawyers to quit.Hadad said the bribery charge is one of the main reasons the defense stage could drag on for years.“If this bribery charge continues to accompany us, there will be hundreds of witnesses here. We will not finish by March 2028,” Hadad told the court.He also sharply criticized the proposed pace of hearings, comparing it to one of the most exceptional trials in Israeli history.“I don’t know of a trial that is held five days a week, only the Eichmann trial,” Hadad said. “If the court wants to shorten the trial, the way is not to kill us. We cannot do this.”Hadad said the defense team was already at its limit.“I have no way to provide the proper defense,” he said. “We are at the very edge.”Netanyahu told the judges that Hadad had warned him the defense team could not function under the proposed schedule.“Amit Hadad called me and said: ‘We are in a catastrophe. My small team and I have no possibility of giving you the defense you deserve five days a week,’” Netanyahu said. “Amit wanted to resign, the whole team asked to resign.”Netanyahu also used the hearing to attack the prosecution and repeat his claim that the trial is part of a campaign to remove him from office.“There is a danger here to the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “This will harm the individual rights of Israel’s citizens. A criminal use was made of the desire to bring me down.”“I did not resign because I demand justice, not only for myself.”The prosecution also objected to the five-day schedule, though from a different angle. Prosecutor Yehudit Tirosh said such a pace would be extremely difficult because the case includes additional defendants and complex evidence.“Five days of hearings for the prime minister’s defense witnesses is burdensome,” Tirosh said.The judges’ renewed stance could reshape the remainder of the case.If prosecutors drop the bribery charge, the defense phase could be shortened substantially, and the legal stakes for Netanyahu in Case 4000 would be reduced.But fraud and breach of trust charges would remain in all three cases.It could also affect any future plea-bargain talks. Removing the bribery count would narrow the dispute between the sides and lower the severity of the case, potentially making a deal easier to reach. At the same time, a shorter trial could reduce the incentive for either side to compromise.The post Judges press prosecution to drop main charge against Netanyahu appeared first on World Israel News.