The State Attorney's Office filed an indictment against Yonatan Urich, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's communications adviser, and two co-defendants for allegedly leaking highly classified intelligence to the German newspaper Bild. Urich is charged with passing secret information with intent to harm state security, holding secret information, and destroying evidence. The prosecution seeks to bar Urich from the Prime Minister's Office and from contacting Netanyahu, who has been added to the witness list.
The State Attorney's Office filed an amended indictment with the Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday against three individuals in the case of classified document leaks to the German newspaper Bild. The main development is the addition of Yonatan Urich (יונתן אוריך), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's personal communications adviser, as a defendant. He joins Eli Feldstein (אלי פלדשטיין) and Ari Rosenfeld (ארי רוזנפלד), who were already charged with stealing and leaking sensitive intelligence from IDF Military Intelligence systems.
Urich faces serious charges: passing secret information with intent to harm state security, passing secret information, holding secret information, and destroying evidence. According to the prosecution, Urich and Feldstein worked together to leak classified material to Bild, knowing the military censor had blocked its publication in Israel, in an effort to influence public discourse on the government's handling of the hostage negotiations. The indictment details that the leak exposed the existence, capabilities, and methods of a secret intelligence asset — posing a real risk to Israeli security interests and intelligence gathering.
As The Zioneer reported in its earlier bulletin (14:51 Jerusalem), the prosecution has also demanded that Urich be completely barred from the Prime Minister's Office, any security facility, and from contacting anyone involved in the case — including Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been added as the final witness on the prosecution's list. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara approved the filing. The charges carry heavy penalties, with the alleged intent-to-harm count being one of the most severe in Israel's security offenses.
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