Former Netanyahu aide could face charges in security leak case
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s attorney general said Sunday a close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been advised that he could face criminal prosecution on allegations of providing secret information with the intent of harming the country’s security.
The development involving a central figure in what is popularly known in Israel as Qatargate comes after police earlier this year arrested the adviser, Jonatan Urich, and former spokesman Eli Feldstein on suspicion of accepting money from Qatar to promote a positive image of the Gulf Arab state in Israel.
Feldstein also has been indicted in a separate case involving the leak of classified information to a German tabloid — and Sunday’s statement says Urich could face criminal prosecution in that case.
The attorney general’s statement said Urich is accused of working with Feldstein to share “highly classified” Israeli military information and said the release “was intended, among other things, to influence public awareness regarding the prime minister and to shift the discourse” following the killing of six hostages in Gaza in August of last year.
The statement says the criminal prosecution of Urich is subject to a hearing but does not say when that will occur.
There was no immediate public reaction from the office of Netanyahu, which has been ensnared in scandal while the prime minister continues to face pressure from the Israeli public over the 21-month war in Gaza.
In the Qatargate case, Urich and Feldstein were arrested earlier this year on suspicion of accepting money from Qatar — a country that many Israelis view as a patron of Hamas — to promote it in Israel. Qatar is a key mediator in the indirect ceasefire negotiations for Gaza and denies backing the militant group.
Netanyahu has given a statement to police on the Qatargate matter but is not a suspect in the case, which he says is baseless and meant to topple his rule.
Separately, Netanyahu is the subject of a long-running corruption trial.