Attorney general decides against mediation process in Netanyahu corruption trial

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Monday said she was uninterested in attempting a non-binding mediation process for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his ongoing corruption trial, after the move was floated as a potential course of action in recent months.

The prospect for potential mediation arose in March when one of the three judges in the trial asked the state prosecution and defense teams to consider mediation.

Baharav-Miara informed Netanyahu’s legal team on Monday that the process would not advance. Hebrew media outlets reported she was skeptical of the value of mediation.

Mediation is generally held before a serving judge (not one of the judges in the trial), who does not hear witnesses and does not restart the trial. Rather, the judge tries to work toward what amounts to a potential plea bargain. The process would have brought the legal proceedings to an end more quickly.

The premier faces charges of fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases, as well as bribery in one of them. He has denied wrongdoing and claimed without evidence that the indictments are part of an effort by political rivals, the media, and law enforcement to push him from office.

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