PortraitAfter four years of investigation, the highly cautious Attorney General of Israel eventually charged his former boss, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, on 21 November on charges of corruption, fraud and breach of trust.
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Head of the prosecution
If he was satisfied with this announcement, Avichaï Mandelblit, 56, did not let it appear. On 21 November, the Attorney General of Israel released his indictment against Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, 70 years old. That night, he was the first magistrate in the country to send a head of government in office before his judges. He held all the charges – corruption, fraud and breach of trust – backed by four years of investigation by the police and a slew of prosecutors under his authority. Incidentally, he opened a deep institutional crisis: Netanyahu sees a "Coup d'état" and refuses to resign.
Orthodox pure and hard
Nothing predisposed Avichaï Mandelblit to play such a role: the prosecutor is anything but a crusader of the fight against corruption, all but a "red judge". He comes from revisionist Zionism, the political matrix of the Israeli right. He is a believer, a strictly orthodox Jew today, who fasted during the extended hearings of the Prime Minister's lawyers, in a basement of the Ministry of Justice, in October, the day of the religious holiday of Guedalia . He made his career in military justice, to the position of Attorney General of the Army (2004-2011).
Former close to Bibi
In 2013, Benyamin Netanyahu chose him as secretary of cabinet before giving him, three years later, his current responsibility. Several petitions, addressed to the Supreme Court, denounce then its too close proximity to the power. Avichaï Mandelblit will however seize the explosive files transmitted by the chief of police, Roni Alsheikh, also religious, who lived for a long time in a colony and that Netanyahu had named in confidence. The prosecutor slowly instructs them for three years, while fulfilling his role as the government's legal adviser for administrative affairs.
Renegade for the right
On November 21, Avichaï Mandelblit recalled his " admiration " for the prime minister and the"Honor" that he had to serve at his side. He was also outraged by attacks by the right against his collaborators. Netanyahu's supporters describe them as an oligarchy from the old leftist elite, determined to bring down "Bibi" in a parody of justice, failing to get rid of it in the polls. "In the end, this decision is mine, concluded the prosecutor on the evening of the indictment. I took it with a heavy heart, with the feeling of serving the law of my country. " His political family will not forgive him.
