Court rejects police request to extend restrictions on Qatargate suspect Urich

The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court rejects the police’s request to extend restrictions on key Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich from contacting others involved in the affair, along with a new request asking to ban him from working in the Prime Minister’s Office.

The court delays implementation of the decision by three days to give the police the opportunity to appeal.

Judge Menahem Mizrahi was strongly critical of the police, saying there was no justification for requesting the ban on Urich, a close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, working in the PMO.

He said that a draft position paper authored by the security services regarding Urich’s alleged threat to national security had still not been completed despite the passage of several months, and that there was therefore no professional document to back the police’s claim that Urich is a threat and justifying the ban on his professional activities.

The judge says the police should have concentrated on claims regarding Urich’s potential to obstruct justice if the restrictions on his contacts with Qatargate suspects were to be revoked, noting that the Supreme Court made similar comments in response to an appeal which reached the top court.

Mizrahi also criticized the police for its handling of the request, saying it had first asked for a 30-day extension, then a day later asked for a 60-day extension while also adding the request for the ban on working in the PMO.

The judge also says that banning Urich from his place of work is a “tough condition” which harms Urich’s constitutional rights, “and I do not believe that evidence has been presented to me that justifies the alleged fear that the suspect will harm state security or will commit similar offenses again.”

The judge further writes that the police have not requested a similar condition for other suspects in the affair, some of whom he says are alleged to have committed more severe crimes than Urich.

“This is an unfocused investigation that is sailing at sea without a captain, which the court cannot accept,” writes Mizrahi.

The police have appealed against Mizrahi’s decisions on several occasions, with the Lod-Central District Court ruling in favor of those appeals four times, while also criticizing Mizrahi on more than one occasion.