Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies President Raúl Latorre visited the Tel Aviv District Court on Monday in a show of support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his ongoing trial on corruption charges.
The highly-publicized court visit came just two weeks after Netanyahu asked Israeli President Isaac Herzog for a pardon, to end the nearly six-year legal saga.
Latorre arrived at the courthouse accompanied by his Israeli counterpart, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party. The venue for the meeting with Netanyahu was necessitated by the fact that the judges in the case declined to cancel the day’s hearing, as the premier had requested, and only curtailed it to a two-hour morning session.
“We are here to give you our full support,” Latorre told Netanyahu. “We admire you and see you as one of the main leaders of the free world.”
Referring to Ohana, he added, “My brother here spoke with me about how unfair this trial is.” Netanyahu interjected to call the trial “comical.”
Paraguay maintains strong bilateral relations with Israel, and is one of only seven nations in the world to have followed the lead of the United States and open an embassy in Jerusalem.
