A witness in the corruption trial of former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was killed along with his wife in a light plane crash in Greece on Monday.
Israeli media report that the victims are Haim Garon, former Communications Ministry deputy director and his wife Esti Garon.
The two Israelis were flying a single-engine plane when the light aircraft went down off the island of Samos in the eastern Aegean. A coastguard official told Reuters the two bodies were recovered from the scene of the crash.
It was not clear what caused the crash, but Greek media said the Cessna 172 plane appeared to have suffered a technical problem and disappeared from radar. The plane crashed as it was about to arrive at Samos’ airport.
Netanyahu corruption trial
Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three corruption cases. One of them — Case 4000 — alleges that the former premier promoted regulations worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the owner of the Bezeq telecom company, Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for positive coverage on its popular Walla news site.
Garon’s testimony was set to center on regulatory issues regarding this case.
The Times of Israel reports that in May 2020, Geron, an attorney by training, spoke about the testimony he had given in the Netanyahu trial and said it related to the development of the country’s optical fiber infrastructure, the communications industry, and telephone services.
Probed as to whether he had ever witnessed any criminal activity at the ministry, Geron responded that “the court is the only one that can determine if something is criminal or not.”
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