Judge bars Netanyahu aide Urich from PM’s office until March over suspicions |
The Lod District Court ruled Sunday that restrictions barring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s adviser Jonatan Urich from the Prime Minister’s Office will remain in place until at least the beginning of March.
It was the latest in a series of decisions by the higher court overturning Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court decisions regarding restrictive conditions for suspects in two cases roiling the PMO.
Urich, along with former Netanyahu spokesman Eli Feldstein and ex-campaign adviser Yisrael Einhorn, is accused of taking money to spearhead a public relations campaign to cast Qatar in a positive light for over a year after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to the terror group, and doing so while working in the PMO.
Urich is suspected of contact with a foreign agent, bribery, fraud, breach of trust, and money laundering, in what has become known as the Qatargate affair.
In addition, he is a suspect in the leak of classified materials to the Bild newspaper in Germany in the summer of 2024, allegedly to sway Israeli public opinion against a hostage deal with Hamas. That affair also involves Feldstein and Einhorn.
Judge Jacob Spasser wrote that there is a “reasonable suspicion” that Urich transferred classified information, which should have been kept secret to preserve state security, and on some occasions “did so intentionally to harm state security.”
“The apparent scene of the alleged offense is the respondent’s previous place of employment,” wrote Spasser, referring to the PMO. “I do not see at this stage the possibility of returning the respondent to the scene of the crime, the unique sensitivity of which........