Two former Mossad officials suspected of working with Qatari intelligence — reports
Key Qatargate suspect and Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich to be kept in custody until Monday after court overrules judge’s refusal to extend his detention
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The Shin Bet and Israel Police believe that two suspects in the so-called Qatargate scandal, both of them former security service officials, were working for Qatari intelligence, it emerged on Thursday.
The two suspects are both businessmen who formerly held senior positions in the Mossad, Channel 12 reported, as the investigation surrounding alleged ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s staff and Qatari elements continued to widen.
The Qatargate affair has revolved primarily around suspicions that two Netanyahu aides — Jonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein — committed multiple offenses tied to their alleged work for a pro-Qatar lobbying firm, including contact with a foreign agent and a series of corrupt actions involving lobbyists and businessmen, all while working for the prime minister.
The investigation continues to expand, however, and the Shin Bet and police are now probing the involvement and business connections of former security officials with Qatar.
According to Haaretz, the two former Mossad agents were recently questioned by the Shin Bet, and the police are seeking to question further suspects in connection with the affair.
One of the former security officials under investigation is a former Mossad official, referred to only as “Shin,” who worked in cooperation with Qatari intelligence during his time at the spy agency and today does business in Qatar, Channel 12 reported.
The second suspect was said to be David Saig, an Israeli businessman, former Mossad official, and a close friend of Shin, who was Saig’s boss during their time in the Mossad.
Saig himself has been questioned under caution as a suspect in the Qatargate investigation.
According to Channel 12, Shin owns a company with retired IDF general Yoav Mordechai, who formed connections with the Qataris during his time as head of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.
Police suspect that Mordechai connected two of the central suspects in the Qatargate affair, Urich and former Likud election campaign manager Yisrael Einhorn, to the Qatari government when they did public relations work for Doha ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
Urich and Einhorn are also suspected of having a business relationship with Shin and Saig, said Channel 12.
The report further said that Shin and Mordechai’s company has a relationship with a German company owned by Gil Birger, another Israeli businessman suspected of having transferred money from pro-Qatari lobbyist Jay Footlik to Feldstein.
Urich and Feldstein are both suspected of having conducted public relations work for Footlik’s company to improve Qatar’s image in Israel, specifically relating to its role as a mediator in hostage release negotiations with Hamas, while they were working at the same time as media advisers to Netanyahu.
After Urich was re-arrested late Wednesday night, Judge Menachem Mizrahi of the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court rejected a police request to extend his remand and issued sharp criticism of police over their handling of the case, and of the basis for the allegations themselves.
Mizrahi accused police investigators of acting unlawfully and unreasonably in the manner in which they arrested Urich, of taking too long to complete the investigation, and of still not having provided evidentiary justification for the allegations against him.
Urich had been brought in for questioning on Wednesday afternoon regarding new evidence the police wished to ask him about, and was arrested just after midnight.
Police sought to extend his detention by five days and extend Feldstein’s house arrest by 30 days, but Mizrahi refused both requests, and granted police 24 hours to file an appeal against his decision.
The judge also raised substantive questions over the investigation, pointing out that although Urich and Feldstein were doing work for the prime minister, they were not employed as formal employees of the Prime Minister’s Office and were therefore not civil servants.
Only civil servants can be charged with crimes such as bribery and breach of trust, which police wish to level against the two suspects.
The Lod-Central District Court overturned Mizrahi’s decision, however, and ordered that Urich remain in custody until Monday as suspicions against him “significantly strengthened in the past day.”
The Times of Israel Community.