Packer to testify in Netanyahu corruption trial
Packer agrees to testify remotely after declining to return to Israel.
Australian billionaire James Packer has agreed to testify in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, but will not travel to Israel to do so, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The masthead reported on Tuesday that Netanyahu’s defence team had called on Packer and two associates, Ben Tilley and Scott Jalland, to give evidence, believing they could support the argument that the charges are flawed and baseless.
Packer, Netanyahu’s former neighbour in Israel, features in Case 1000, in which the prime minister is charged with fraud and breach of trust over cigars and champagne worth NIS 229,000 (A $106,000) received between 2014 and 2016.
The three declined to return in person, saying the “outrageous behaviour of the Israeli authorities has caused significant damage to Mr Packer”.
“Mr Packer is deeply disappointed by the treatment he has received from the Israeli authorities,” Jalland wrote in a letter filed in court.
“He was shocked to learn that the Israeli investigators violated his privacy and took his private documents and private information without his knowledge or consent, with no due process procedure.”
The three have agreed to appear remotely, likely by audiovisual link, saying they were law-abiding citizens who would comply with any order from a court where they live requiring them to testify under oath.
The request follows a Herald investigation reporting that a company controlled by Packer transferred about US $1.25 million (A $1.78 million) over two years to Hadad Roth Shenhar & Co, the Tel Aviv firm whose senior lawyer leads Netanyahu’s defence. The paper said it had not established that Netanyahu benefited.
Packer denied the payments funded the defence.
“The claim that I paid even a single cent toward the legal defence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is false,” he said in a statement issued through the firm, adding that anyone making the claim “exposes themselves to legal action”.
A source familiar with his affairs told the Herald the firm was paid for work including finding business deals in Israel.
Packer has not been accused of wrongdoing. He was questioned as a witness by the AFP in 2017.