JERUSALEM: An Israeli court on Thursday rejected a request from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit the number of days each week he’ll have to testify when he finally takes the the stand in his years-long corruption trial.
Netanyahu’s lawyers have made numerous requests to delay his testimony, which is expected to begin next Tuesday and last several weeks.
His lawyers had requested that he testify fewer than three days a week, because of the demands of dealing with the Mideast wars and the fighting in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
Jerusalem district court judges ruled on Thursday that they “found no compelling reason” to allow the request.
Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate scandals in which he is accused of trading favors with powerful media moguls and wealthy associates.
He denies wrongdoing.
Israeli court rejects Netanyahu’s request to limit how often he’ll testify
https://arab.news/mvp69
Israeli court rejects Netanyahu’s request to limit how often he’ll testify
- Netanyahu’s lawyers have made numerous requests to delay his testimony
- Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes
UN-sanctioned migrant smuggler killed in western Libya
- Libyan authorities report that a notorious militia leader, Ahmed Oumar Al-Fitouri Al-Dabbashi, was killed in a raid by security forces on Friday
- In 2018, the UN and US sanctioned him for controlling migrant departure areas and exposing migrants to fatal conditions
CAIRO: A notorious militia leader in Libya, sanctioned by the UN for migrant trafficking across the Mediterranean Sea, was killed on Friday in a raid by security forces in the west of the country, according to Libyan authorities.
Ahmed Oumar Al-Fitouri Al-Dabbashi, nicknamed Ammu, was killed in the western city of Sabratha when security forces raided his hideout. The raid came in response to an attack on a security outpost by Al-Dabbashi’s militia, which left six members of the security forces severely wounded, according to a statement issued by the Security Threat Enforcement Agency, a security entity affiliated with Libya’s western government.
Al-Dabbashi, who was also sanctioned by the US Treasury for trafficking, was the leader of a powerful militia, the “Brigade of the Martyr Anas Al-Dabbashi,” in Sabratha, the biggest launching point in Libya for Europe-bound African migrants.
Al-Dabbashi’s brother Saleh Al-Dabbashi, another alleged trafficker, was arrested in the same raid, added the statement.
In June 2018, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Al-Dabbashi, along with another five Libyan traffickers. At the time, the UN report said that there was enough evidence that Al-Dabbashi’s militia controlled departure areas for migrants, camps, safe houses and boats.
Al-Dabbashi himself exposed migrants, including children, to “fatal circumstances” on land and at sea, and of threatening peace and stability in Libya and neighboring countries, according to the same report.
Al-Dabbashi was also sanctioned by the US Treasury for the same reason.
Libya has been a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. The country was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
The country has been fragmented for years between rival administrations based in the east and the west of Libya, each backed by various armed militias and foreign governments.
