Court extends by one day remand of key suspect in PMO secret documents leak case
Shin Bet and Israel Police had asked that Eli Feldstein be held for another eight days but request turned down; another suspect in case released to house arrest
The key suspect in the alleged theft of army intelligence that was apparently leaked to the media via the Prime Minister’s Office was remanded in custody for another day on Wednesday.
However, the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court declined a request from the Shin Ben secret service and Israel Police that Eli Feldstein be held for a further eight days, in an apparent indication of presiding Judge Dorit Saban-Noy’s impatience at the length of the investigation.
Feldstein and three other suspects in the case have already been held for 18 days.
Saban-Noy said the speed at which the investigation was proceeding was “unsatisfactory.”
Feldstein, a Netanyahu aide who had previously served in the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit, is suspected of having worked with the four intelligence soldiers to steal top-secret intelligence material from the IDF and leak some of it to the Prime Minister’s Office. One such document was allegedly leaked by Feldstein to Bild in a distorted manner that dovetailed with the premier’s talking points against a hostage deal with Hamas.
He has been held in detention since October 27, part of that time without access to a lawyer. Of the four soldiers, one was released to house arrest last week, and another was released to house arrest on Wednesday.
Police and the Shin Bet asked for extensions in the remand of the two other suspects, and Saban-Noy granted just one more day.
The names of the soldiers suspected in the case, and other aspects of it, are covered by a gag order.
Attorney Eytan Lehman, representing the suspect who was released to house arrest on Wednesday, told Haaretz that though the case against his client has not been closed, “he is heading in the right direction.”
The attorney of another suspect told Channel 12 that he believes there is no reason to extend the remand of his client.
“There can’t be any new evidence as the story has been known for a while,” Attorney Micha Fettman said, adding that the issue of the suspects’ protracted detention has become a matter of public trust in law enforcement authorities.
Fettman on Tuesday said that his client was told by Feldman that he had passed on the material to Netanyahu, who then asked for more. Netanyahu’s office issued a statement rejecting the claim and implying the suspects in the case were being pressured to implicate the premier.
The Shin Bet, which has spearheaded the investigation, has reportedly finished questioning Feldstein and he will now be transferred to police.
Unsourced Hebrew media reports said that there is tension between police on the one hand, and the Shin Bet and prosecutors on the other, as to how the case is being handled. Whereas police want to finish the investigation and file charges, the latter two believe there is still more to be gained by continuing the probe, the Ynet outlet said.
Police will hold an assessment on the case Thursday to decide on how best to proceed, the Kan public broadcaster reported.
The suspects have been held so far at a Shin Bet facility usually used for security prisoners, with each held in solitary confinement all day long, Ynet reported, citing sources familiar with the circumstances. When they are removed from their cells for interrogation, they are led away blindfolded, the report said.
The alleged intelligence theft is one of several security-related scandals that have roiled Netanyahu’s office recently.
Top aides to the premier are also accused of collecting embarrassing footage of then-defense minister Yoav Gallant in an altercation with a security guard and of a top officer in the PMO’s military secretariat in a clandestine relationship; and of trying to tamper with minutes of wartime discussions involving Netanyahu and/or PMO officials before and after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel, including on the night of October 6-7, 2023, hours before the Hamas attack.
