AG orders criminal probe into Netanyahu’s aides’ ties to Qatar

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara orders a criminal investigation be opened into the ties of officials working in the Prime Minister’s Office and Qatar.

The Attorney General’s Office makes the announcement in the wake of revelations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, who has been charged with harming national security in a case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents, worked for Qatar via an international firm contracted by Doha to feed top Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories.

The Attorney General’s Office says the decision was made following a meeting between Baharav-Miara, State Attorney Amit Aisman, the head of the police’s investigations and intelligence department, and professional officials in the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service.

In that meeting, “information was presented as to the connection between elements working in the Prime Minister’s Office and elements connected to the state of Qatar,” the Attorney General’s Office states.

The investigation will be carried out by the Shin Bet and the police.