Police seek to extend house arrest of PM’s aides in Qatargate, leaked docs scandals
Cops ask court for 21 more days for Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein; Urich suspected of obstructing investigation into ties with Qatar, deemed threat to state security
Police on Tuesday requested that the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court extend the house arrest of Jonatan Urich, a longtime senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, by 21 days, and revealed that he is also now suspected of obstruction of justice in the ongoing “Qatargate” scandal.
The request to extend Urich’s house arrest stems from suspicion that, if released, he could obstruct the investigation and endanger national security, police said.
Police also requested a further 21 days of house arrest for Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, which was originally imposed over a different scandal surrounding leaked classified documents.
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 charges involving lobbyists and businessmen.
Feldstein was also charged in November with harming national security in a separate case involving the theft and leaking of material from a classified IDF document to the German daily Bild in an effort to sway public opinion toward Netanyahu. Urich is also a suspect in that case.
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, in a filing to the High Court of Justice on Monday amid the ongoing case surrounding the government’s effort to fire him, cited the Qatargate investigation — which the internal security agency has been conducting, together with the police — as a reason for his dismissal.
The suspicion that people employed by Qatar, which supports the Hamas terror group, are working “in the holy of holies of Israeli decision-making,” and are allegedly engaged in influence campaigns, plainly requires investigation, “especially when that state is involved in mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas,” Bar wrote.
He noted the gravity of the allegations against Netanyahu’s aides, and the suspicion that their activities have harmed national security as well as the efforts to secure the release of the hostages, and the untenability of firing the Shin Bet head in the midst of the investigation.
On Saturday, Feldstein’s lawyers denied a claim by Netanyahu’s spokesman that their client had not worked for the Prime Minister’s Office in the six months before his arrest, saying it was “contradicted by mountains of objective evidence.”
Earlier this month, Netanyahu accused the police of holding Urich and Feldstein “hostage,” claiming that investigators were grasping at straws with no actual evidence to back up their “political investigation.”
The prime minister, who claims to be the victim of a “deep state” plot against him, has also argued that the Qatargate probe was only ordered by Attorney General Baharav-Miara and begun by Shin Bet chief Bar to create an ostensible conflict of interest in which the prime minister could not fire the security chief who was investigating his office.
The premier’s assertion contradicted the known sequence of events, as Netanyahu only initiated the process to dismiss Bar after the investigation into Qatar had already been launched.
Jeremy Sharon and Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.