The lawyers for Yonatan Urich, a close advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, informed police investigators today (Monday) that he intends to return to his job at the Prime Minister's Office immediately.
The announcement was made after the restrictive conditions imposed on him, including exclusion from the Prime Minister's Office, expired yesterday - and the Magistrate's Court did not grant the police's request to extend them.
The restrictive conditions in Urich's case expired last night at midnight. The police, who requested to extend the ban for an additional 60 days, were met with a refusal by Rishon LeZion Magistrate's Court Judge Menachem Mizrahi, who did not issue a decision extending the conditions. The judge also noted that the police did not act in accordance with previous decisions that required a "five-day period" for submitting a formal request.
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Following the announcement by Urich's defense attorneys that he had returned to work in Netanyahu's office, the police filed an urgent appeal notice with the Central Lod District Court. The police did not even wait for Judge Mizrahi's decision - and the Deputy President of the Lod District Court, Judge Ami Kobo, gave an initial decision on the request, determining that the appeal hearing would take place tomorrow at 8:00 AM.
Judge Kobo ruled that Urich's lawyers must submit their response to the appeal by this evening at 7:00 PM.
Until the appeal hearing tomorrow, the issue remains in a heated legal dispute between the parties: on the one hand, Urich claims that he is a person free from restrictions, and on the other hand, the police are trying at the last minute to prevent him from meeting with Netanyahu.
According to Urich's lawyers, the court does not have the authority to extend the restrictions after they expired yesterday.
The police informed the Rishon LeZion Magistrate's Court yesterday that the Kattergate case has been transferred to the prosecutor's office. Suspects in the affair include members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office and associates - Advisor Urich, the office's former military spokesman Eli Feldstein, who is also accused in the leak of classified documents to Bild, and former advisor Israel "Srulik" Einhorn.
