Jerusalem – In one of the more dramatic court moments in years, Sara Netanyahu, wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, late Sunday started testifying against her family’s former house manager in his case against them for alleged poor treatment and failure to pay him for overtime hours, for which he seeks hundreds of thousands of shekels.
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Netanyahu started off with a rebuke to Naftali and to the media, saying that nasty rumors had been spread about her by the media for over a year.
“For more than 15 months they have been spilling my blood in the public sphere. Until today, my voice was not heard,” she asserted, adding that, “most of the things I see in the media are incorrect.”
In March, Naftali testified against Sara, stating she often drank excessive amounts of alcohol.
During his testimony at the trial on accusations of labor law violations, Naftali claimed that various Prime Minister’s Office officials had broken promises they had allegedly made to him that they would make his house manager position permanent, an upgrade from his status as temporary manager over an extended period.
Naftali also complained that there was an incitement and intimidation campaign against him, including breaking into his home.
Sara Netanyahu had been also expected to testify in March, but her testimony was delayed until Sunday.
In March. the Netanyahus responded to Naftali’s testimony: “The baseless lies, slander and mudslinging which Mani Naftali told about the wife of the prime minister in court, who is not even a defendant in his case, are scandalous. Nothing less than that.”
Earlier Sunday, Naftali’s lawyer questioned Ezra Seidoff, deputy director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, who has been the most prominent in the headlines following Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein’s February 26 decision to order a criminal investigation, separate from Naftali’s civil claim, into the allegations surrounding the Prime Minister’s Residence. Naftali was house manager from February 2011 to November 2012.
While Weinstein exempted the prime minister from criminal suspicion at this stage, the State Comptroller’s Report on the issue appeared to suggest that the focus of the probe, boosted by new testimony from Naftali, could be Seidoff, with Sara Netanyahu possibly also in the cross-hairs.
The dangers for Seidoff from the criminal investigation were apparent with his refusing to answer
Did she say she did not do it?