Police argued that the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court erred when it canceled restrictions, including restrictions on Urich’s employment and broad no-contact orders.
Israel Police on Sunday filed an appeal to the Lod District Court seeking to overturn a magistrate’s court decision that lifted most restrictive conditions imposed on Yonatan Urich, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in connection with the classified documents leak known as the “Bild affair.”
In the appeal, police argued that the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court erred when it canceled restrictions, including a ban on Urich’s employment in the Prime Minister’s Office and at the consulting firm Perception, as well as broad no-contact orders. Police also requested a stay of execution, warning that the immediate removal of the conditions poses a risk to the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
The appeal follows a Thursday ruling by Magistrate’s Court President Judge Menachem Mizrahi, who sharply criticized the police investigation and ordered most of the conditions against Urich lifted, leaving in place only financial guarantees and a 60-day limited no-contact order with Eli Feldstein and Israel Einhorn.
Urich suspected of serious security offenses
In their filing, police maintained that Urich is suspected of serious security offenses, including the delivery, possession, and destruction of classified information, some allegedly carried out with the intent to harm state security. According to investigators, the evidentiary foundation against Urich remains substantial and was wrongly discounted by the magistrate’s court at this procedural stage.
Police argued that Mizrahi improperly weighed the credibility of Feldstein – a central figure in the case – and parsed individual pieces of evidence in isolation, rather than assessing the cumulative evidentiary picture. At the stage of reviewing restrictive conditions, the appeal stresses, the legal threshold is reasonable suspicion – not proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Attorney Amit Hadad arrives for a court hearing of Yonatan Urich and Eli Feldstein who were arrested in the so-called Qatargate investigation, at the Magistrate’s Court in Rishon Lezion, April 1, 2025. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90)
The filing cites extensive interrogations of Feldstein, confrontations between Feldstein and Urich, and encrypted Signal and WhatsApp correspondence, which police say demonstrate Urich’s awareness of the classified nature of the documents and his alleged role in approving or facilitating their dissemination to foreign media.
A central focus of the appeal is the magistrate’s court decision to lift the ban on Urich’s employment at the PMO and Perception. Police argued that allowing Urich to return to these environments would create a heightened risk of further offenses or obstruction, given their sensitivity and their alleged relevance to the underlying events.
Investigators further contended that canceling broad no-contact orders with potential witnesses and suspects undermines efforts to prevent obstruction of justice. The appeal notes that the Supreme Court has previously upheld similar restrictions on other defendants in the Bild case, citing the gravity of the alleged offenses and the risk of interference with legal proceedings.
Mizrahi’s ruling relied in part on the formal separation between the Bild affair and the so-called “Qatargate” investigation, which probes alleged ties between Netanyahu associates and Qatari-linked influence efforts. Police argued in their appeal that, while the investigations are procedurally distinct, factual overlap remains and cannot be ignored when assessing the risk posed by lifting restrictions.
The appeal asserts that evidence relating to Qatargate was not introduced to expand the scope of the case improperly, but rather to illustrate the broader context in which the alleged conduct occurred and the ongoing risk of obstruction.
Police asked the district court to reinstate the restrictive conditions pending a full hearing on the appeal, warning that without immediate intervention, the decision will take effect and be difficult to reverse. The Lod District Court is expected to rule first on the request to stay execution, before addressing the merits of the appeal itself.
Urich’s attorneys have not yet filed a public response to the appeal.