The hearing in the "Case 1000" trials, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to resume testifying Monday morning, was canceled just an hour and a half before its planned start.
The cancellation followed an urgent last-minute request submitted by Netanyahu’s defense attorneys, and is due to security reasons.
The Prime Minister was expected to take the witness stand after a break of about two months in the proceedings, but a court notice clarified that the hearing would not take place as planned.
According to the court, a formal request detailing the reasons for the cancellation will be submitted later on Monday, and only then will an official decision be made regarding the continuation of the proceedings.
On Sunday night, The New York Times reported that Israeli President Isaac Herzog does not currently intend to grant Netanyahu a pardon, since he believes there are alternatives to granting a pardon, foremost among them advancing a plea bargain agreement. Sources familiar with the matter said that the president prefers to pursue that direction rather than make a direct decision on the issue at this stage.
The President's Office stated: "As expressed several times in the past, President Isaac Herzog sees reaching an agreement between the parties in Prime Minister Netanyahu's cases as a proper and correct solution. Negotiations for an agreement are a necessary part of the attempt to bring the parties to an agreement."
"Therefore, the President believes that it is appropriate first, before discussing the pardon request itself, to exhaust a process that could lead to the formation of an agreement between the parties, outside the walls of the court," it was reported.