It was a bizarre twist in Benjamin Netanyahu's criminal trial: a hearing at the Tel Aviv court ended early because "something big is happening in South America", the Israeli Prime Minister said, and it would be embarrassing if he could not deal with the situation.
The event, as it turned out, was a visit by the Speaker of Paraguay’s parliament, Raul Latorre. Mr Netanyahu, whose trial has been a major battleground in Israeli politics for years, had spent only an hour and 20 minutes in court.
The Paraguayan guest said he had been told “how unfair this trial is”, and that “we are here to give you our full support”.
“We admire you and see you as one of the main leaders of the free world,” Mr Lattore added. Mr Netanyahu described his trial as “comical” to the visitor.
The disruption caused by the visit of an official from a country more than 10,000km away might have seemed farcical if the stakes were not so high. For Israel’s opposition, the corruption case is about Israel’s longest-serving prime minister acting in his own interests at the expense of the state’s, an accusation levelled at Mr Netanya
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