Leaked Documents Case: Former Netanyahu aide set to be charged for leaking, intending to harm state security

The day before a hearing on her dismissal, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Sunday revealed several serious charges against a former aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including intent to harm state security.

Jonathan Urich, a former key advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu, is expected to be indicted – pending a hearing – as part of the “Leaked Documents Case.” Urich and another suspect are accused of leaking classified information to the press in an attempt to influence public opinion.

The full charges include transmitting classified information with the intent of harming state security, possession of classified information and destroying evidence.

The attorney general’s statement came the day before a specially convened ministerial committee was set to discuss her dismissal, drawing accusations that she was trying to sabotage it or speeding up the proceedings to ensure they were done before a potential dismissal.

Sources in Baharav-Miara’s office told i24 that the timing of the announcement was intended to prevent claims that the attorney general cannot summon Urich to a hearing after she was fired.

“The disgraceful announcement by the attorney general regarding the intention to indict Yonatan Urich – especially at this time – is an unfortunate decision that raises serious concerns,” Netanyahu charged in a statement.

“I am familiar with the details, and I state unequivocally and clearly: there was no harm to state security. Yonatan did not harm the security of the state. This is an unfounded, baseless move – designed to serve a different agenda, not the public interest,” the prime minister added.

The prosecutors argue that Urich and Eli Feldstein, both of whom are also suspects in the Qatargate investigation, took a classified document ostensibly authored by slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and leaked it to the German BILD newspaper.

They allegedly aimed to distract Israeli public opinion from Hamas’ murder of six Israeli hostages and to sway opinion toward Netanyahu’s policies.

In a statement, the attorney general’s office said that the information that was leaked was “classified at the highest possible level [and] was obtained through secret intelligence means, and Urich, by exposing it, may have endangered state security and lives.”

Urich’s lawyers, Amit Hadad and Noa Milstein, responded that their client “denies all the allegations against him,” noting he “never possessed and never transmitted a classified document and definitely didn’t harm national security.”

Baharav-Miara’s “baseless” statement “comes at a timing that isn’t coincidental,” they added, vowing that Urich’s “innocence will be proven beyond doubt.”