Rejecting police request, court rules Braverman can return to PMO but can’t contact Feldstein

The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court rejects police requests for restrictive conditions on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman, on Omer Mansour, a spokesperson in the Prime Minister’s Office, and on ex-spokesman Jonatan Urich who is a key suspect in the Qatargate and Bild affairs.

Judge Menachem Mizrahi says there is “no evidentiary, substantive, proportionate and practical justification” to accept the police requests to ban the suspects from contacting each other and restricting where they can work, apart from several exceptions.

The judge rejects the police request for restrictive conditions on Braverman, only okaying a ban on him contacting the premier’s former aide Eli Feldstein, who has been indicted over the leaked documents affair, for 30 days and a NIS 5,000 ($1,600) bond.

The police requested that Braverman be barred from entering the Prime Minister’s Office for 15 days, but the court rejects this request.

Mizrahi also rules that Urich can contact anyone, except for Feldstein and Yisrael Einhorn, another suspect in the Qatargate and leaked documents affairs, for 60 more days.

And no restrictive conditions are issued for Mansour, other than a NIS 5,000 bond.

The ruling will go into effect this coming Sunday to give the police time to appeal the decision.

Mizrahi has issued numerous rulings rejecting police requests for measures against the premier’s former aides, and most of them have been overturned after appeals to a district court.

Braverman was interrogated at length on Sunday about his alleged attempt to obstruct a probe into the leak of classified documents to German tabloid Bild.

Braverman and Mansour were detained for interrogation after Feldstein, a former spokesman for Netanyahu, alleged last month that Braverman had known of a covert investigation into the leak months before it was publicized, and had assured Feldstein that he’d be able to quash the probe.