IDF reservist Ari Rosenfeld, charged in PM office leak, to be released to house arrest
Court orders the release of Rosenfeld, with electronic tagging and no access to internet, after State Attorney’s Office, ordered to re-evaluate, dropped its opposition
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The Tel Aviv District Court on Thursday ordered that Ari Rosenfeld, the non-commissioned IDF officer at the center of the Prime Minister’s Office security documents scandal, be released to house arrest with electronic tagging.
Rosenfeld has been held in prison for four months after being arrested in late October and indicted on charges of illegally transferring classified documents from IDF Military Intelligence to Eli Feldstein, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who then leaked one of the documents to the Bild newspaper in Germany.
The court ordered Rosenfeld to deposit a NIS 100,000 guarantee and banned him from contacting anyone involved in the criminal investigation surrounding the affair, and from using any device with internet connectivity.
The court also issued a permit to the security services to tap and track communications by Rosenfeld should they believe he is violating the court order.
The order came after the State Attorney’s Office dropped its opposition to Rosenfeld being released to house arrest, after what they said was a change in the security services’ evaluation of the danger he poses.
Last month, Rosenfeld’s attorney presented the court with a letter from Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein. The attorney said that in the letter, it was asserted that Shin Bet domestic security agency Ronen Bar stated that releasing Rosenfeld would not endanger national security.
ברוך מתיר אסורים!
אחרי כ 120 יום בשבי החונטה, איש המילואים ארי רוזנפלד משוחרר למעצר בית. pic.twitter.com/U7SpK1tXLm— Igal Malka – ???????????????????????? (@igal_malka) February 6, 2025
The State Attorney’s Office had until now said that Rosenfeld was exposed to a large amount of classified information during the war as a result of his service in the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate and that releasing him to house arrest could enable him to leak more material.
“As part of the request for a review [of the ruling], an updated position from the Shin Bet was received, which indicates that, unlike the position presented previously, the danger posed by the NCO can be ignored,” the State Attorney’s Office told the court on Thursday.
Rosenfeld’s attorney Uri Corb rejected, however, the assertion that the Shin Bet had changed its position, arguing that the agency had always been of the opinion that the NCO could be under house arrest, and accused the State Attorney’s Office of ignoring this position.
“The Shin Bet’s position from the beginning was that he could be under house arrest, that’s what we understood from the things we heard from the Shin Bet, as defense attorneys, directly and indirectly,” insisted Corb.
The attorney also contended that there had never been any danger Rosenfeld would leak further information, since he had told investigators that he had given the documents to Feldstein because he thought it would be beneficial to the state.
Rosenfeld contends that he gave the documents to Feldstein because he thought Netanyahu should see the information and knew that it had not been passed to him, even though he was not authorized to transfer the documents in question.
Corb argued that Rosenfeld’s intentions had been motivated “ideologically” for the good of the state, and said that after it was made clear to him that he had harmed the state, the court’s evaluation service had determined that Rosenfeld would not leak any more classified information.
The State Attorney’s Office decision agreeing to house arrest just barely cleared a February 6 deadline imposed by the court last month, which ordered that Rosenfeld be sent for an evaluation to determine whether or not he could be released to house arrest.
“The evaluation service is requested to address the level of danger posed by the applicant,” Judge Ala Masarwa wrote at the time, saying the position of the Shin Bet should be taken into consideration as well as an assertion by Rosenfeld’s defense attorney that the suspect’s mental state was deteriorating due to his ongoing incarceration.
Rosenfeld and Feldstein are being prosecuted for allegedly leaking information to the Bild newspaper about the Hamas terror group’s plans and intentions during the war, in an attempt to alleviate public pressure on the prime minister after Hamas executed six Israeli captives in August 2024, sparking mass protests calling for a deal to secure the remaining hostages’ release.
