Indictment Filed Against Yoni Urich in the Bild Affair

An indictment was filed this morning (Thursday) against Yonatan Urich, an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the publication affair involving the German newspaper Bild. Urich is accused of offenses including disclosure of secret information with intent to harm state security, disclosure of secret information, possession of secret information and destruction of evidence. The filing of the indictment was approved by the attorney general and the state prosecutor.

The State Prosecutor’s Office notified the Tel Aviv District Court of an amended indictment filed against Eli Feldstein and reserve soldier Ari Rosenfeld, adding Urich as a defendant. At the same time, the prosecution is seeking to bar Urich from the Prime Minister’s Office and from any security facility or place where secret information may be held, and to prohibit him from direct or indirect contact with any of those involved in the affair.

The indictment was filed over the theft of highly sensitive secret information from IDF intelligence systems, including raw intelligence, and its subsequent publication in a foreign media outlet, after military censorship completely barred its publication, with the aim of influencing public discourse on the issue of the hostages.

According to the indictment, Urich and Feldstein used highly classified information from the military system to influence media discourse. As part of this, Feldstein and Urich acted to have one of the items published in the German newspaper Bild, knowing it was a secret item and despite being aware that military censorship had not permitted its publication in Israel, while taking a real risk of harm to essential security interests. In addition, Feldstein, in advance coordination and with Urich’s consent, passed information he received from Rosenfeld to additional unauthorized parties.

The three are accused of actions that led to the exposure of the existence of a secret intelligence means. It is alleged that public exposure of the secret information could cause real harm to Israel’s security interests, especially in the area of intelligence collection and the exposure of intelligence sources, which save lives, since it reveals missions, capabilities, methods of action and classified means used by the intelligence community in various arenas.

The indictment also states that the day after Feldstein and Rosenfeld were arrested, Urich replaced his mobile phone and deliberately avoided transferring the correspondence that had been on his previous phone, in order to prevent its use.

***Presumption of innocence: Urich, Feldstein and Rosenfeld have not been convicted, and the presumption of innocence applies to them.