Comptroller committee gives Netanyahu deadline to turn over financials
PM accuses committee violences rights to finance legal defense
By YONAH JEREMY BOBPRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu. (photo credit: REUTERS)
The State Comptroller Committee set a deadline for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to turn over his financials on Monday, after the committee reconsidered whether the PM can receive legal donations for his legal defense.The committee established that Netanyahu must turn over his financial statements by Friday or they will rule against him.Netanyahu claimed that the committee's decision harmed his rights to finance his legal defense.Following the committee's initial rejection of Netanyahu's request to receive donations from tycoons for his legal defense of public corruption charges, the prime minister was ordered to return $300,000 to donors, a donation he received without the committee's approval.This led Netanyahu to file a petition in March with the High Court to overturn the committee’s decision.The High Court’s ruling was an interim victory for Netanyahu, though the committee’s lawyer afterward said that the committee would not let Netanyahu receive donations if he did not commit to spending a minimum amount of his own funds.The committee’s lawyer said that until now, Netanyahu had refused to contribute even a shekel of his personal funds to his own defense.
