Judge orders officer suspected in leaks case kept behind bars

A court has ordered that a suspect arrested in a high profile case involving leaks of classified military documents be held in custody until early next week, the Ynet news site reports.

The unnamed suspect, identified in reports as a reserves intelligence officer, is one of five people arrested in the affair, which involves allegations that classified documents were fed to foreign media outlets as part of a campaign to dampen support for a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza.

During the remand hearing, the suspect’s lawyer argues that his client is innocent of allegations that he harmed state security.

“This is a political arrest,” he is quoted saying by Ynet.

Nonetheless, he is ordered kept behind bars for four days.

Much of the case remains under gag order and the only suspect named so far is Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The other four suspects are all connected to the defense establishment. According to a Channel 12 news report, the Shin Bet suspects that an “infrastructure” was put in place that was able to access “all the classified material held by IDF Military Intelligence,” and that “it extracted — and may have intended to continue to extract in the future — classified material that could expose the capabilities of the entire intelligence community” — encompassing the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Mossad.