Shin Bet officer set to be charged over suspected leak to minister, journalists

The Justice Ministry says it plans to charge a Shin Bet officer with criminal wrongdoing over suspicions that they passed sensitive information to Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and two journalists that found its way into the press.

A statement by the Department for Internal Police Investigations says that the officer, whose named is under a gag order, was informed this morning that he is facing indictment, pending a hearing at which he can make his case.

The officer, who was serving in the Shin Bet as a reservist, is accused of passing classified details of a Shin Bet investigation probing concerns that extremist Kahanist ideology was taking root in the police to Chikli, Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal, and Israel Hayom reporter Shirit Avitan Cohen.

The Shin Bet investigation focused on concerns that the extreme far-right ideology was infiltrating into the police under the influence of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a former acolyte of the late rabbi Meir Kahane, whose government role puts him in charge of the police.