PM’s chief of staff banned from leaving the country following police interrogation |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, was released from police custody on Sunday evening after he was interrogated at length about his alleged attempt to obstruct a probe into the leak of classified documents from the Prime Minister’s Office to German tabloid Bild.
Police said on Sunday morning that an aide to the premier had been detained on “suspicion of obstructing investigative procedures,” but did not mention Braverman by name.
The interrogation, conducted by the Lahav 433 major crimes unit, was reported to have lasted around 13 hours, and Braverman was released under restrictive conditions, including a 15-day ban on entering the Prime Minister’s Office and a 30-day ban on leaving the country.
The latter restriction could pose problems for Braverman, the Ynet news outlet reported, and risks delaying his entry into the post of ambassador to the United Kingdom, which has been left unfilled since the conclusion of Tzipi Hotovely’s term in September 2025.
Similar restrictions were also reportedly imposed on Omer Mansour, a spokesperson in the PMO who was called for questioning alongside Braverman on Sunday.
The pair were detained for interrogation after Netanyahu’s former spokesman and the key suspect in the Bild leak affair, Eli Feldstein, alleged last month that Braverman knew of a covert investigation into the leak months before it was publicized and had assured Feldstein that he’d be able to quash the probe.
In an interview with the Kan public broadcaster last month, Feldstein said Braverman asked to meet him late at night in an underground parking lot in the Kirya military........