Judge orders Netanyahu aide Feldstein to house arrest, gives state till Wed. to appeal
Court finds dearth of evidence that spokesman intended to harm state security when he leaked secret document to press, but does believe he knew leaking the material was illegal
The Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday ordered the release to house arrest of Eli Feldstein, an aide and spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after a judge warned he saw insufficient evidence to back up the state’s charge against Feldstein of intending to harm national security. The judge did indicate that there was “clear” evidence that Feldstein had knowingly breached military censorship when leaking a stolen, classified IDF document.
Feldstein has been held in custody for more than a month on suspicion of leaking stolen classified intelligence information to the foreign press. He has been held along with another suspect in the case, an IDF reservist who will also be released to house arrest.
The court gave the state until 1 p.m. on Wednesday to decide whether it intends to appeal the release of the two to house arrested.
Feldstein, a spokesman who worked closely with Netanyahu over the last year, was charged last month with transferring classified information with the intent to harm state security, a charge that can carry a sentence of life in prison, as well as illicit possession of classified information and obstruction of justice.
The case is centered around the alleged leak of a highly classified document to the German tabloid Bild in September, which ostensibly detailed Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations (though it later became apparent the document was written by lower-level officials in the terror group and did not necessarily reflect the leadership’s position).
The document was allegedly unlawfully removed from the IDF’s military intelligence database by the reservist — a non-commissioned officer (NCO) — who gave it to Feldstein, who then saw to it that it was transferred to Bild.
However, Tel Aviv District Court Judge Alaa Masarwa said at the hearing on Feldstein’s potential remand that prosecutors had presented insufficient evidence for their contention that he had intended to harm national security when he leaked the top-secret IDF document to the press.
At the hearing, Masarwa said he had concluded that “sufficient apparent evidence has been presented for this stage of the proceedings regarding the charges of illicit transferal of classified information and its publishing in the media.”
Both Feldstein and the NCO had “closed their eyes to the apparent danger” of their actions,” Masarwa said, and “knew these were confidential documents whose transfer was prohibited unless in accordance with clear and strict rules.”
Nevertheless, he said he “found weakness in the evidence for the charge of transferring classified information with the intent to harm the state,” referring to the most serious charge.
During the hearing, the judge also acknowledged Feldstein’s claim of “selective enforcement” in the case.
Specifically, he said that the involvement in the case of Netanyahu’s adviser Jonathan Urich was “not negligible” but noted that Urich was “neither arrested nor prosecuted.”
Urich was, however, questioned under caution twice, reportedly on suspicion of having instructed Feldstein to send the stolen document to Srulik Einhorn, a former senior campaign adviser to Netanyahu’s Likud party, who in turn passed it on to Bild.
The Kan public broadcaster reported on Tuesday evening that during his testimony, Feldstein told investigators that he had told Netanyahu about the top-secret document prior to leaking it.
A Channel 13 report Tuesday night gave a more detailed account of Feldstein’s testimony.
It quoted Feldstein telling investigators he did not initially give the document to Netanyahu — “because that was not my job; it was the job of the prime minister’s military attache.” Rather, Feldstein reportedly testified, “I asked to utilize the classified material in order to influence debate in the media and public opinion.”
However, Feldstein reportedly also told investigators that after Netanyahu held a press conference following Hamas’s murder at the end of August of six Israeli hostages, “I whispered in the prime minister’s ear” about the document, and therefore felt that he was acting on behalf of the political echelon, Channel 13 reported. (Netanyahu gave a press conference on September 2 and another, for the foreign press, on September 4. The Bild article reporting on the document was published on September 6.)
Netanyahu has sought to distance himself from the case, insisting that he learned about the existence of the classified document from the media.
Kan reported, without citing sources, that Feldstein said he had notified the prime minister just two days before he leaked the document to Bild.
Regarding the release of Feldstein and the NCO to house arrest, Masarwa said that he found “no justification” for keeping the two in custody, given the nature of the case and the absence of a previous criminal background.
The two will be prohibited from contacting anyone involved in the ongoing case for the duration of their house arrest, the judge ruled, and will not be allowed access to any smart devices or devices with internet capabilities, with the exception of television.
Prosecutors filed a request to delay the implementation of the judge’s decision by 48 hours, which Masarwa accepted, according to Hebrew media.
However, he ordered prosecutors to inform the court by 1 p.m. on Wednesday whether or not they will appeal the decision. If not, he said, the suspects will be released without further delay.
Feldstein’s father, Yehoshua Feldstein, told Ynet outside the court that he was relieved the judge had ruled out the possibility that his son had intended to harm state security.
“We had a difficult time thinking that my son was suspected of harming state security,” he said. “This restores our trust in the state.”
“We are confident that justice will be served on the other counts as well,” he said.
