Eliezer Feldstein and four other unnamed officials from the premier’s office have been accused of leaking classified information to foreign media outlets
The Cradle reports…
Eliezer Feldstein, the main suspect in the case regarding the recent leaks from the office of Israel’s prime minister, has been transferred to suicide watch after a “foreign object” was found in his cell, the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) said on 17 November.
The IPS said the object was not a noose, as had been previously reported. Feldstein removed a rubber frame off of the cell’s window, sparking fears that he would use it to attempt suicide.
“Wardens found something in the cell of a security prisoner held in a jail in the south that necessitated, in accordance with the instructions of the prison commander, his immediate transfer to a cell where he could be monitored to prevent a suicide,” the IPS statement said.
The object was “improvised from permitted materials available in the cell,” and the transfer aimed “to ensure his safety and well-being.”
The Israeli State Attorney’s office said on Sunday that it plans to prosecute Feldstein and another suspect involved in the leak case.
He and the other unnamed suspect are being accused of transferring classified information, collecting classified material, and conspiracy to commit a crime, among other things.
Feldstein was arrested along with four others for allegedly leaking confidential information to foreign media, court documents released on 3 November revealed.
The names of the other four detained persons have not been cleared for publication by Israel’s military censors.
The intelligence was leaked to two foreign media outlets, the Jewish Chronicle in the UK and Bild in Germany, both of which published stories about the leaked intelligence. The Jewish Chronicle later retracted its story.
The court papers said that information that was taken from the Israeli military’s systems and “illegally issued” may have damaged Israel’s ability to free the captives held by Hamas in Gaza.
The leaked document was said to contain information regarding a plan by late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to smuggle Israeli captives out of the Gaza Strip. At the time that it was reported by British and German media, Israeli newspapers reported that no such intelligence existed.
Israel’s opposition accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office of leaking faked documents to torpedo an exchange agreement and create a pretext for the Israeli military’s continued presence on the Philadelphi Corridor…
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