Netanyahu aide charged with harming state security in leaked document case, could face life term
Spokesman Eli Feldstein allegedly transferred classified information with intent to harm the state; second defendant, an IDF reservist, charged with offenses carrying 7-year term
Eli Feldstein, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was indicted on Thursday by the state prosecution on a grave charge of harming state security, as part of the security documents scandal that has roiled the Prime Minister’s Office in recent weeks.
Feldstein, a spokesman who worked closely with Netanyahu over the past year and who is the central suspect in the affair, was charged with transferring classified information with the intent to harm the state, a charge that can carry a sentence of life in prison, as well as illicit possession of classified information and obstruction of justice.
A second suspect indicted in the scandal, an IDF reservist noncommissioned officer who has not been identified, was charged with transferring classified information, an offense that is punishable with seven years in prison, as well as theft by an authorized person and obstruction of justice.
The full indictments, which were filed with the Central District Court, have yet to be released by the court.
Netanyahu himself is not a suspect in the case.
Earlier on Thursday, hundreds of people, including coalition ministers and MKs, demonstrated outside the Tel Aviv District Court building in support of Feldstein and the NCO, and denounced the probe into their activities and the pair’s ongoing detention. Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli said at the protest that the case marked “the complete politicization of the legal system.”
The allegations surround the alleged leak of a highly classified document to the German tabloid Bild in September, which ostensibly detailed Hamas’s priorities and tactics in hostage negotiations (though it later became apparent the document was written by lower-level officials in the terror group and did not necessarily reflect the leadership’s position).
The document was allegedly unlawfully removed from the IDF’s military intelligence database by the NCO, who gave it to Feldstein, who then saw to it that it was transferred to Bild.
The State Attorney’s Office has said it will request that the two suspects be kept in custody for the duration of legal proceedings against them.
Feldstein has already spent over three weeks in detention after being arrested on October 27, and was put on suicide watch earlier this week after it was reported that prison guards found a rubber strip in his cell that he could have used to hang himself.
On Wednesday, Yonatan Urich, another spokesperson for Netanyahu, was questioned by the Lahav 433 major crimes unit for the second time over the security documents affair.
Urich was reportedly questioned on suspicion of having instructed Feldstein to send the classified document to Srulik Einhorn, a former senior campaign adviser to Netanyahu’s Likud party, who in turn passed it on to Bild.
Einhorn, who is currently overseas, has refrained from returning to Israel to avoid being grilled by authorities, according to reports in the Hebrew media.
Related: Netanyahu aide leaked stolen doc to try to ‘skew hostage deal debate’ in PM’s favor
Investigators believe the leaking of the document had the potential to do severe damage to Israel’s security, the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court disclosed on Sunday, while the IDF came to the conclusion that the leak harmed the war aim of freeing the hostages held in Gaza.
Information released by the court also demonstrated that the apparent motivation behind Feldstein’s leak was to alleviate public pressure and criticism against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the murder of six high-profile hostages by Hamas in late August.
The murder of the six hostages by Hamas spawned an outpouring of grief in the country, as well as intense protests against Netanyahu, in which he was accused of blocking a hostage release deal.
The court indicated that Feldstein leaked the document to Bild in order to influence the public discourse over the fate of the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza; have Hamas leader Sinwar blamed for the impasse in hostage release negotiations; and imply that protests demanding the release of the hostages were playing into Hamas’s hands.
Outside the Tel Aviv District Court on Thursday, Yehoshua Feldstein, the suspect’s father, claimed that the document his son allegedly gave Bild had already been in public circulation at the time.
“He’s a righteous man; he’s a true hero of Israel,” Feldstein’s father said.
Avital, the wife of the NCO, told a Channel 12 reporter outside the court that her husband “is someone whose whole life is dedicated to the people of Israel… All he’s ever done is give of himself for the country.”
