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Netanyahu to AG: Graft Indictment Would Be Surrender to the Left & Media

© AP Photo / Ariel SchalitIsrael's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his Likud party session in the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem. File photo
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends his Likud party session in the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem. File photo - Sputnik International
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Case 4000 pertains to corruption allegations against Benjamin Netanyahu, with suspicions that he assisted the Bezeq group, controlled by Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for favourable media coverage, while working as communications minister in 2014-2017, in addition to his prime ministerial post.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hit out at Attorney General (AG) Avichai Mandleblit for recommending his indictment over the corruption case. Specifically, the PM described the move as a surrender to the media and the Left, Haaretz reports.

The newspaper referred to a short video published on Netanyahu's Facebook page on Saturday, which opens with claims of "the left and the media" pursuing "Mandelblit for three years to indict [Netanyahu] at any cost".

READ MORE: Israeli Police Interrogate Netanyahu and His Wife Over Corruption Charges

The footage, which also shows a spate of protests near Mendelblit's house, ends with: "Will they succeed?"

Also on Saturday, Netanyahu lambasted Mandelblit's move to give an interview to the Israel Television News Company, saying that "the decision to cooperate with such a program, at such a time, is unprecedented in the history of Israeli law and raises serious question marks".

"I have serious things to say about what we saw this evening and I will say them when I return from the diplomatic trip to Chad," Netanyahu noted.

On Saturday, Israel's Hadashot TV cited a legal source as saying that Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit decided to recommend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted over Case 4000.

READ MORE: Netanyahu Denies Claims He Tried to Dig up Dirt on Police Amid Corruption Probe

"It's a question of professionalism," Mandleblit stressed, in a statement that came after he reportedly rejected Netanyahu's request that the indictment be delayed in light of the upcoming Israeli elections.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and his son Yair visit, on March 18, 2015, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem - Sputnik International
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In line with Case 400, former Netanyahu spokesman Nir Hefetz, and Shlomo Filber, the ex-director of the communications ministry, were arrested on suspicion of promoting regulatory benefits worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Israeli telecom company Bezeq in return for favourable coverage of Netanyahu on Bezeq's highly popular news site, Walla.

Netanyahu's office, which is also suspected of being involved in two other separate corruption cases — Case 1000 and Case 2000 — has repeatedly rejected all the accusations, labelling them "fake news".

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