Supreme Court orders Eli Feldstein released to house arrest, keeps IDF reservist in detention in leak case

The Supreme Court rejects the state’s request to keep Eli Feldstein, a key defendant in the Prime Minister’s Office classified documents leak scandal, in detention, and orders that he be released to house arrest with an electronic tracker.

Justice Alex Stein rules that the state has already sustained the blow to its security from the information Feldstein leaked and that he doesn’t have any more classified information to reveal, so that the danger to the state posed by releasing him to house arrest is low.

The court rejects, however, the appeal of the IDF reservist noncommissioned officer who is also at the heart of the case and who leaked the classified documents to Feldstein.

Stein writes that since the NCO was exposed to a great deal of classified information during his work for the IDF’s Military Intelligence data security department and since he has leaked such documents in the past, he might do so again, further endangering state security.

The judge writes that the NCO saw himself “and continues to see himself” as a “kind of vigilante of the Intelligence Corps, an ‘independent contractor’ who, when necessary, is allowed to take the reins and establish direct communication channels between himself and government officials in ways he sees fit while completely eliminating the IDF chain of command and information security procedures.”

Stein orders the NCO kept behind bars, but says that he may be able to appeal if circumstances change.

Feldstein and the NCO are charged with leaking classified information, with Feldstein accused of doing so in order to influence public opinion on negotiations for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in a more favorable direction for his boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.