District Court Rules Jonathan Urich Will Not Be Barred From the Prime Minister's Office

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The District Court rejected the prosecution’s request to bar Jonathan Urich from the Prime Minister’s Office, ruling that no danger or risk of obstruction of proceedings on his part had been proven. A further hearing in his case is expected to take place in several weeks.

A setback for the prosecution: after it filed a revised indictment that included Jonathan Urich, along with a request to keep him away from the Prime Minister’s Office, the District Court rejected the request, and Urich will therefore be able to continue coming to the office. According to the judge, "I was not impressed that there is danger here or obstruction on the part of the respondent Urich," and therefore, "the request must be denied."

Earlier today, the prosecution filed a revised indictment in the classified documents affair, in which the Prime Minister’s adviser, Jonathan Urich, was added as a defendant alongside Eli Feldstein and reservist Ari Rosenfeld. In addition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate Moshe Aviv, and the consul general in Miami, Tzuri Siso, who previously served as Likud director general, are also expected to testify.

Along with the indictment, the prosecution asked to impose restrictive conditions on Urich until the end of proceedings, including a ban on contact with those involved in the case, including prosecution witnesses. Among the prosecution witnesses listed is also Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The amended indictment attributes to Urich offenses of conveying secret information with intent to harm state security, conveying secret information, possessing secret information, and destroying evidence. According to the prosecution, Urich and Feldstein worked to publish classified information in the newspaper Bild, despite knowing that military censorship had barred its publication in Israel. It is also alleged that Feldstein, in coordination with Urich, passed unauthorized parties information he had received from Rosenfeld.

The prosecution says the acts led to the exposure of a secret intelligence source and its capabilities, in a way that could have caused harm to Israel’s security interests.

In addition, it was alleged that a day after Feldstein and Rosenfeld were arrested, Urich replaced his mobile phone without transferring the messages from the previous device, in order to prevent them from being seized as evidence.