Yonatan Urich, a senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and one of the primary suspects in the Bild case, will be allowed to maintain his position at the Prime Minister's Office, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled on Thursday.
The court rejected the prosecution's requests to extend the restrictive conditions imposed on Urich, as prosecution representatives alleged in court that Urich had tampered with evidence to impede the investigation.
Urich was added to an amended indictment in the Bild leak case earlier this month, alongside former PMO spokesman Eli Feldstein and IDF reservist Ari Rosenfeld.
The case centers on the alleged transfer and use of classified military material connected to Hamas’s position in hostage negotiations, which was later published by the German newspaper Bild in September 2024.
According to the indictment, Rosenfeld contacted Feldstein on June 6, 2024, about the urgent transfer of material from military intelligence to the prime minister. Prosecutors allege that Feldstein immediately updated Urich, who later helped shape the route by which the material could be used after the military censor blocked its publication in Israel.
Urich is alleged to have directed Feldstein to Netanyahu associate Israel (Srulik) Einhorn, whose involvement was part of an effort to place the material with foreign media.
Urich alleged to have helped disseminate classified information around hostage talks
The prosecution alleges that Urich was involved in receiving, using, and helping disseminate the classified information as part of public messaging around the hostage talks.
The charges include delivering secret information with the intent to harm state security, delivering secret information, possessing secret information, and destroying evidence.