The Lod District Court rejected a police appeal on Tuesday seeking to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's adviser, Yonatan Urich, from contact with Likud director-general David Sharan.
Urich may return to his job at the Likud party; however, he is not allowed to contact Netanyahu or the Prime Minister's Office amid the ongoing investigation into the "Qatargate" affair, Judge Amit Michlis ruled.
Urich has also been summoned to a hearing in the “Bild” case. He was previously held in custody and is currently under a range of restrictive conditions, including a ban on contacting other suspects and on handling matters related to the prime minister.
Police appealed a prior Central District Magistrate’s Court ruling by Judge Menachem Mizrahi that allowed contact with Sharan, arguing that such contact would blur the line with Urich’s PMO-related ban.
At the start of Tuesday’s hearing, defense attorneys and Noa Milstein pointed to a contradiction between the police position presented on Tuesday and what police told the magistrate’s court about a week ago, when they said there was no bar to Urich working with the Likud movement.
Judge Michlis noted that the material submitted by the police did not resolve the contradiction.
Court cites police inconsistency
“I am of the view that the material presented to me does not answer the inconsistency in the police’s position regarding Mr. Urich’s employment by the Likud Party, and in any case, it is not investigative material,” he said.
The judge added that while past rulings discussed the blurring of lines between the party and the Prime Minister’s Office, the police themselves now clarified they had no objection to Urich working for the party. “Once the police make clear that they see no impediment to such employment, the basis for their central claim in the appeal, namely the occupational ban rather than the no-contact condition, falls away,” Michlis said.
Accordingly, the court allowed Urich to work with the Likud movement and to contact Sharan, while maintaining the bar on returning to duties connected to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The “Qatargate” probe has focused on alleged lobbying and public relations work linked to Qatar by figures close to the prime minister, including Urich. In recent months, courts have adjusted Urich’s restrictions several times amid ongoing police requests and appeals.