Israel’s Netanyahu wins defamation go well with in opposition to ex-PM By Reuters

(Corrects title of court docket, paragraph 5)

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu received a defamation go well with on Monday in opposition to a predecessor who had alleged that he, his spouse and his son had been mentally unwell, with the court docket deeming the remarks a bid to hurt Netanyahu’s political profession.

Netanyahu’s lawyer hailed the ruling as “the shattering of one other libel” – an allusion to his shopper’s assertion of innocence in three graft trials that overshadowed his final time period as premier and are complicating his efforts to retake energy.

Ehud Olmert, who served as centrist premier between 2006 and 2009, made the observations in a TV interview final 12 months shortly earlier than the conservative Netanyahu, then heading a caretaker authorities, was toppled by an alliance of cross-partisan rivals.

Having positioned first in Israel’s Nov 1 election, Netanyahu now appears to be like set to type a hard-right new coalition authorities after extra mainstream events boycotted him attributable to his authorized troubles.

Tel Aviv Magistrates’ Court docket dominated that Olmert’s portrayal of Netanyahu, his spouse Sara and son Yair had uncovered them to “hate, ridicule or degradation” and that the defendant had not substantiated the remarks with a correct medical evaluation.

Whereas voicing hope that psychological sickness “will someday be regarded like every other sickness”, the court docket ordered Olmert to pay the Netanyahus 62,000 shekels ($17,850) in compensation. That they had initially sought 837,000 shekels.

“An try by a public determine to affect the political final result of a a democratic course of can’t be considered as ‘intent to trigger hurt’ within the sense of warranting a number of sums in damages,” the 26-page ruling mentioned of the diminished award.

In his latest memoir “Bibi: My Story”, Netanyahu describes Sara as a trusted adviser on coverage and his “rock” in instances of bother. He deems Yair, a distinguished rightist commentator on social media, a “sharp-witted observer of the political scene”.

Olmert’s lawyer mentioned he may enchantment in opposition to the choice.