Netanyahu’s Testimony in His Corruption Trial Will Resume Wednesday

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the district court for his hearing on corruption charges, Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 December 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the district court for his hearing on corruption charges, Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 December 2024. (EPA)
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Netanyahu’s Testimony in His Corruption Trial Will Resume Wednesday

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the district court for his hearing on corruption charges, Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 December 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the district court for his hearing on corruption charges, Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 December 2024. (EPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not testify Tuesday in his ongoing corruption trial, after his lawyers requested his testimony be cancelled.

He testified in court Sunday and he is expected to return on Wednesday. Netanyahu took the stand for the first time in his long-running corruption trial last week, becoming the only sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant.

Netanyahu will answer to charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. Netanyahu, 75, denies wrongdoing, saying the charges are a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased legal system out to topple his lengthy rule.

The testimony is set to take place six hours a day, three days a week for several weeks, and will take up a significant chunk of Netanyahu’s working hours as he faces Israel's ongoing war in Gaza as well as developments in Syria and Lebanon.



Lawyer: South Korea's Yoon to Accept Court Decision Even if it Ends Presidency

Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
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Lawyer: South Korea's Yoon to Accept Court Decision Even if it Ends Presidency

Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will accept the decision of the Constitutional Court that is trying parliament's impeachment case against him, even if it decides to remove the suspended leader from office, his lawyer said on Thursday.
"So if the decision is 'removal', it cannot but be accepted," Yoon Kab-keun, the lawyer for Yoon, told a news conference, when asked if Yoon would accept whatever the outcome of trial was.
Yoon has earlier defied the court's requests to submit legal briefs before the court began its hearing on Dec. 27, but his lawyers have said he was willing to appear in person to argue his case.
The suspended president has defied repeated summons in a separate criminal investigation into allegations he masterminded insurrection with his Dec. 3 martial law bid.
Yoon, the lawyer, said the president is currently at his official residence and appeared healthy, amid speculation over the suspended leader's whereabouts.
Presidential security guards resisted an initial effort to arrest Yoon last week though he faces another attempt after a top investigator vowed to do whatever it takes to break a security blockade and take in the embattled leader.
Seok Dong-hyeon, another lawyer advising Yoon, said Yoon viewed the attempts to arrest him as politically motivated and aimed at humiliating him by bringing him out in public wearing handcuffs.