Feldstein and the opponent A. to house arrest • The prosecution requested a stay of execution

December 3, 2024   

The Tel Aviv District Court today (Tuesday) ordered the release of Eli Feldstein, spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office for Military Affairs, and placed the reservists from the Intelligence Division under house arrest. The two were charged in the 'leaking of classified documents' case and were held for more than a month and a half in Shin Bet and police detention facilities. The prosecution fought against the decision and filed a request to delay the execution of the two's release. The judge granted the request and the prosecution will have to decide whether to file an appeal by tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. In the release decision, Judge Alaa Masarwa wrote: "The alternatives that were proposed are good alternatives of normative people and that the respondents themselves are normative people until they got involved in this case." They are expected to be released on bail of 100,000 NIS each and a cash deposit of 50,000 NIS. It should be noted that the two have already been released three times by the courts, but time after time the decision is not actually implemented due to the insistence of the prosecution. Earlier, Judge Alaa Masarwa ruled that after hearing the arguments of the parties, there is an "evidence weakness" in the presentation of Eli Feldstein, to be tried for the offense of harming state security, as there is not enough police evidence to justify this section. The judge also ruled that certain weight will be given to Feldstein's claim of selective enforcement, compared to Prime Minister Yonatan Urich's spokesman, who was not arrested or prosecuted.

The judge later ruled that Eli Feldstein did not pass the classified documents on to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He wrote: "Feldstein was not authorized to receive the material, in the absence of security classification. The opponent sent him the material on the Telegram app on 07.06.24, with the intention of passing it on to the Prime Minister, but according to the evidence, Feldstein did not do so, and instead it was used solely for media purposes.".

According to the judge, "the publication of the document jeopardized highly confidential sources, methods and means.".

Regarding the connection between Feldstein and the opponent, the judge wrote: "It appears that the opponent suggested to Feldstein to establish a permanent communication link and channel between them, through which secret information from the military system would be transmitted directly to the Prime Minister's Office.".

The discussion also reveals that Feldstein initiated a conference call with an intelligence officer and a journalist who was presented as a Mossad agent.

Commentator Amit Segal wrote: The judge pointed out the problem in the law enforcement system, which is the loss of brakes: • A baseless indictment against Feldstein and the counter-charge of harming state security that falls even before the first hearing • A raid in the middle of the day and in the middle of the road on the IPS commissioner, when in the evening he is back at his usual job • A raid on the Prime Minister's Office in a "shocking affair of falsifying protocols" that turns out to be baseless nonsense • Then, to balance things out, a strange charge of recklessness as an act of terrorism is slapped on the four opposition activists