A-G creates team to discuss questions arising from Netanyahu’s indictment

Three days have passed since Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit published the charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust and now the constitutional questions arise following this historic step.

Among the issues under discussion are: whether a prime minister facing an indictment should resign, or should he act in accordance with the letter of the Basic Law, which says he should resign only after being convicted. Another question that is at stake is whether the President Reuven Rivlin can grant Netanyahu the mandate to form a government after the indictment was filed.

On the weekend, members of the political system have already turned to Mandelblit, demanding that Netanyahu resign from his ministerial positions: Welfare, Health, Agriculture and the Diaspora.

According to a report on Army Radio on Sunday, the attorney-general has set up a legal team to discuss these constitutional questions in hopes of reaching conclusions by the weekend.

The report specifies that the legal team will include Mandelblit himself, State Attorney Shai Nitzan, Vice President for Constitutional Affairs, Adv. Raz Nazri and Deputy Attorney-General, Dina Zilber. Head of the petitions to the High Court, Attorney Anar Helman, will probably join the team on the assumption that any decision that is not made will eventually come up for a hearing in the High Court.

Meanwhile, the Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel became the first to file a petition to the High Court of Justice to force Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign.