Urich and Feldstein to be released to house arrest after judge rejects request to extend remand; police lodge appeal

Rejecting a police request to extend the remand of key Qatargate suspects Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein, the Rishon LeZion Magistrate’s Court rules that they will be released to house arrest until April 22.

The two are also forbidden from contacting anyone involved in the affair, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for 60 days, and barred from leaving the country for the next 80 days.

The police immediately seek leave to appeal their release.

Judge Menachem Mizrahi also levels criticism at the police investigators, saying that he suspects they didn’t focus solely on Urich and Feldstein’s alleged ties to Qatar during the last few days of interrogations, but also used the opportunity to probe the two prime ministerial aides about the classified documents leak from the Prime Minister’s Office, in which Feldstein is also a central suspect.

In the so-called Qatargate affair, Urich and Feldstein are suspected of multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corruption allegations involving lobbyists and businessmen.

Separately, Feldstein has been indicted in a scandal in the PMO in which a classified document ostensibly detailing Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations was unlawfully removed from the IDF’s military intelligence database and material from it was leaked to Germany’s Bild newspaper.