Outgoing State Attorney Shai Nitzan on Wednesday denied accusations by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his associates that the Attorney's Office was trying to frame Netanyahu.
"What is ‘framing’? Did I initiate the conversations between Netanyahu and [Yediot Aharonot publisher Noni] Mozes? I faked them, as though someone was imitating them? There is no argument that these conversations took place. I don't know what 'he smoked a few cigars' means - the indictment filed against Netanyahu speaks to a value of about 700,000 shekels [in cigars]," Nitzan said in an interview with Channel 12 News.
He added that judicial decisions in legal cases should not be made using political means.
"Suppose there was a public person who committed rape, and you would tell me, 'Most of the public voted.' What does that mean? It doesn't work that way in the modern democratic method. I don't compare rape to the current charges, but you can't make legal decisions like it’s a reality show. The legal fate of a person cannot be decided by a vote at the ballot box," said Nitzan.
Netanyahu later responded to Nitzan’s comments and demanded he apologize.
"It’s shocking that Shai Nitzan used rape victims to justify his obsessive witch hunt against me. Apparently there are no limits in the attempts to topple the Likud government under my leadership. Shai Nitzan must apologize immediately - and first of all to the victims of crimes of rape," Netanyahu wrote in his Facebook account.