Court orders PM’s aides to be released from house arrest, grant police 48 hours to appeal

The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court orders Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close aide Jonatan Urich and former spokesperson Eli Feldstein to be released from house arrest, despite the state’s request that they be held under such conditions for another 21 days.

The two were arrested in late March in connection with their alleged role in the Qatargate scandal, but released to house arrest at the beginning of April.

The police expressed concerns that Urich would try to obstruct the investigation should he be released, but Judge Menachem Mizrahi says that neither Urich nor Feldstein was suspected of having attempted such activity while under house arrest and could therefore be released.

Mizrahi adds that the further investigative activities which the police have requested to carry out do not warrant keeping the two suspects under house arrest.

The judge suspends the decision to release the two from house arrest for 48 hours, however, to allow the police the opportunity to appeal the decision.

In the so-called Qatargate affair, Urich and Feldstein are suspected of multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corruption charges involving lobbyists and businessmen, while at the same time working for the prime minister.