The Tel Aviv District Court on Thursday again rejected the prosecution’s request to impose restrictive conditions on Jonathan Urich, former adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The ruling means Urich may continue working in the Prime Minister’s Office and remain in contact with Netanyahu, despite the indictment against him in the classified-documents leak case involving the German newspaper Bild.
Judge Massarwa sharply criticized the state’s position during the hearing. He opened by saying, “It’s a bit strange,” and noted that on March 15, 2026, before there was any indictment, the prosecution had agreed that Urich could return to the Prime Minister’s Office. The judge asked why, if there had been concern about obstruction then, the state was now seeking to bar him. Prosecutor Adi Arad replied that “today the defendant faces a significant indictment,” but the judge pressed further, saying the earlier concern over an investigation was more immediate and severe than a general fear of influencing trial proceedings.
Arad later said the prosecution had “no choice” but to agree earlier because there had been no basis to extend the restrictions when no further investigative action was expected, specifically Prime Minister Netanyahu’s testimony. The court was not convinced.
About two weeks ago, the district court overturned a decision by Judge Menachem Mזרחי, who had refused to extend Urich’s removal from the Prime Minister’s Office after the police filed the request only hours before the original restrictions were due to expire. Urich’s lawyers, Amit Hadad and Noa Milstein, said this week that the removal conditions had permanently expired. With Thursday’s ruling, Urich can now return to full activity alongside Netanyahu.
Urich is charged in the classified-documents leak affair with serious offenses, including knowingly passing secret information to harm state security, passing secret information, possessing secret information, and destroying evidence. The prosecution had sought to keep him away from the Prime Minister’s Office and security facilities, but both of its requests were rejected.
