Court rejects request for indictments to be annulled in PM’s office leaked documents case

The Tel Aviv District Court rejects a request by the lawyers of two defendants in the classified documents affair for their indictments to be annulled.

During a court hearing, attorneys for defendants Ari Rosenfeld and Eli Feldstein object to the length of time that has passed without a trial having started since the State Attorney’s Office filed indictments in November 2024, Hebrew media reports.

Attorney Uri Korb notes that his client, Rosenfeld, has either been in prison or under house arrest since he was indicted some nine months ago. The delay in the trial has resulted from the opening of the Qatargate investigation, which involves several of the same suspects and defendants as the classified documents case and testimony that affects the first case, prosecutors have said.

Indictments have yet to be brought in the Qatargate case.

Judge Raanan Bar Yosef suggests to the prosecutors that they withdraw the classified documents indictments and combine them with indictments over the Qatargate investigation when they are ready, in order to avoid unnecessary harm to the defendants.

The State Attorney’s Office representatives refuse the suggestion, however, leading the judge to deny the request to withdraw the indictments.

The judge also criticizes the prosecutors for failing to provide the investigative material used against the two defendants to their lawyers in a timely manner.

In the classified documents affair, Rosenfeld, an IDF reservist noncommissioned officer, is charged with having unlawfully passed classified military intelligence documents to Feldstein, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military spokesman.

Feldstein is charged with transferring classified information with the intent to harm the state for having given that document to the Bild newspaper, as well as with other crimes.