Qatar-gate suspects accused of leaking information to media for Doha
A court lifted the gag order after 'massive and repeated' leaks to the media • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed the case as a 'political witch hunt' that has held his aides 'hostage'
A Rishon LeZion court lifted the gag order on Monday pertaining to the case known as "Qatar-gate," which investigates Doha's ties to two close advisors to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The authorities requested to extend the remand of Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein. Investigator Zohar Erez revealed that, according to their suspicions, "Urich transmitted messages to the media under the cover of political and security sources, when in reality they were messages coming from a person with financial connections with Qatar and funded by this state."
The suspects are accused of conveying positive messages about Qatar, while sending negative messages about Egypt's functioning as a mediator.
Judge Menachem Mizrahi sharply criticized the police for the "massive and repeated" leaks in this case, saying this "shamed" the publication ban. "I did not want to write even harsher things," he added. Urich's lawyer, Amit Hadad, claimed that an investigator had pressured his client by telling him: "Think carefully, because you could see your child as early as tonight," implicitly suggesting a status of state witness. The investigator denied these allegations.
The two suspects are accused of contacts with a foreign agent, corruption, and breach of trust. Investigators have also questioned Netanyahu, who is not considered a suspect at this stage.
In a video published after his testimony, Netanyahu denounced "a political witch hunt" aimed at "preventing the dismissal of the Shin Bet chief."
This comes after Netanyahu and the government voted unanimously to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar, over a lack of trust post-October 7. However, the timing of his dismissal comes on the heels of the Shin Bet opening an investigation into the aides.
"They are holding Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein hostage," Netanyahu said. "They are making life difficult for them for no reason. It's a political persecution that has only one goal: to bring down a prime minister from the right."