The hearings in the trial of opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, which were scheduled to take place this week, have been canceled.
The announcement was made after the State Prosecution notified the Jerusalem District Court that no spyware was illegally inserted into the cellular devices of anyone concerned in the various court cases against Netanyahu unless it was according to court order.
“Our checks have revealed that no actions were taken against officials without first obtaining a court order,” the Prosecution stated, adding that, “There is no further material derived from interrogations in the cases.”
With regard to the court orders that were received, allegedly permitting police to spy on the cellular devices of Shlomo Filber, Nir Hefetz, Shaul and Iris Elovitch, and others, the Prosecution has requested an extension until Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. to issue its reply to the Court.
According to a report on Channel 13 News, the State Prosecution is expected to admit that illegal use was made of spyware technology against former Communications Ministry director-general Shlomo Filber, who turned state witness, but that the illegal activity consisted only of extracting more data than the original court order permitted.
Allegedly, the material that police obtained was not actually transferred into the hands of investigators. In addition, police attempted to insert spyware software into the personal device of another unnamed person involved in Case 4000 against the former premier, but their attempt failed, as did the attempt to spy on the cellular device of Iris Elovitch, which was also done allegedly after a court order permitted it.