Indictments against two suspects in the “leaks case” at the Prime Minister’s Office are expected to be filed on Thursday by the State Prosecutor’s Office, with Attorney-General Gali Baharav Miara responsible for the final decision on what charges will be filed.
The suspects are former spokesperson Eli Feldstein and a former aide who has not been identified.
Journalist Caroline Glick wrote about the case: “Eli Feldstein, a spokesman at the Prime Minister’s Office is being railroaded by Israel’s corrupt deep state. The charge against him is that he went around the military censor and published Hamas documents that showed Sinwar was using hostage talks to overthrow Netanyahu and had no intention of freeing the hostages.”
“IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi filed the complaint because the publication in BILD exposed the fact that he was lying when he said there was a deal to be had.”
“The military censor is Koby Mandelblit. His uncle, Avichai Mandelblit is the former Attorney General who indicted Netanyahu. All of the charges disintegrated in the courtroom. The prosecutors are the same lawyers who used prolonged incarceration to coerce Netanyahu’s advisors to turn state witnesses against him even though they had no incriminating evidence against him.”
Feldstein has been imprisoned in harsh and isolated conditions for 25 days in Ashkelon Prison, where he is surrounded by 12 cells of Arab criminals and is the only Jew among 15 Arabs in his ward. He has expressed fear for his life to his guards and is now on suicide watch due to the harsh conditions and isolation he has endured.
On Tuesday, the Shin Bet finally allowed Feldstein, to speak to his parents by phone ahead of the indictment on Thursday. Channel 14 reported that the parents described the conversation as “difficult and painful.”
Ynet reported that during Eli’s brief conversation with his mother, he told her about daily, prolonged interrogations that amounted to dozens of hours. He said that he was hooked up to a lie detector during the interrogations and endured “torments of soul and body,” as he put it.
His relatives say that he has been wearing the same clothes since his arrest and family members who tried to bring him clothes were held outside the detention facility for hours and eventually sent home.
Haaretz journalist Chaim Levinson said that the case has been completely blown out of proportion: “The more time that passes, the more the Feldstein case and the leaks are proving to be an inflated affair blown out of proportion,” he wrote. “A secret system [Shin Bet] that sees itself as the only one concerning ‘national security’ is flying off the handle over an event of disciplinary and administrative order. And the judicial system, which is supposed to oversee the security system, is capitulating and surrendering without exercising judicial oversight as it should.”
“I have certain knowledge that is prohibited from publication about why this particular document leak triggered the entire military information security apparatus. It’s good they investigated. It’s good they found the source of the leak and it’s good they are removing the officer from the IDF. The IDF has its own investigative authorities and appropriate minor military offenses for this type of case. Here, the secret police were involved. Why?”
“Not everything is the end of national security. Even if there is certain damage – and there probably was some damage – it doesn’t mean the sky has fallen. It’s not an Iranian spy who transferred nuclear secrets. It’s a few individuals with poor judgment.”
“They’re investigating this case as if they found Iranian spies within the IDF rather than irresponsible individuals. The rationale behind the ban on meetings [of the suspects with lawyers, family members, etc.] is that terrorists or spies are individuals who are trained for interrogations and are mentally and ideologically prepared for a thorough investigation and therefore should be pressured and isolated.
“I don’t think Feldstein fits the case,” he emphasized “There was no justification for preventing him from meetings, not for him…and not for anyone else… I hope that the system will come to its senses and be ready to accept some criticism, and to emerge from the madness surrounding this affair and return it to the proper dimensions.”
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