Netanyahu aide to be charged with leaking secret information with intent to harm state security

NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) - Israel's attorney general on Thursday said a close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face criminal prosecution for leaking secret information to a German newspaper with the intent of harming the country's security.

The announcement marked another scandal for the embattled Netanyahu as the country gears up for elections this fall. Netanyahu himself is on trial for corruption in three separate cases and faces tensions within his coalition that threaten to dissolve parliament.

The attorney general's office said it plans to indict Jonatan Urich in the leak of a classified document in 2024 to a German tabloid that critics said was aimed to help absolve Netanyahu of blame for failed negotiations with Hamas during the war in Gaza. It said Urich would also be charged with possession of confidential information and destruction of evidence.

Netanyahu's office refused to comment on the planned indictment. But Urich's lawyers told Israel's Army Radio channel that the decision was "wrong and disconnected from the evidence." Urich reacted with a sarcastic one-line post on social media, saying "It's quite something that the AG didn't ask for a death sentence."

Netanyahu and members of his inner circle have claimed they are the victims of a politically motivated witch hunt by overzealous prosecutors and the media.

The attorney general's office did not say when the indictment would be officially handed down. It is a standard practice to announce the intent to indict ahead of time.

Another former aide to Netanyahu, Eli Feldstein, has already been indicted on charges related to the same affair.

Both Urich and Feldstein were arrested last year in a separate case known in Israel as "Qatargate," on suspicion that they accepted money from Qatar to promote a positive image of the Gulf Arab state in Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. They are suspected of accepting money from a foreign government while working for the prime minister's office.

Netanyahu's office has played down the leaks and Qatargate affair and has frequently accused the judiciary of bias.

Eliad Shraga, chairman of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, described the decision to indict Urich as "dramatic" and said "it proves once again how rotten Netanyahu's inner circle is."

In July, the attorney general's office said the suspicions against Urich involved working with Feldstein to share "highly classified" Israeli military information with the German newspaper Bild to improve Netanyahu's image and divert attention away from the deaths of six Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Their killings in August 2024 sparked mass protests demanding a ceasefire.