The State Attorney’s Office opposed in a filing to the Tel Aviv District Court on Monday a request by Ari Rosenfeld, the IDF Intelligence reserve NCO who was indicted for leaking top secret documents, to review a High Court of Justice decision to keep him in prison until the end of legal proceedings.
According to the State Attorney’s Office, the review request did not include any relevant reason to review the “detailed and grounded” ruling by High Court Justice Alex Stein on December 9.
In the ruling, Stein permitted the release to house arrest of the other defendant in the case, Eliezer Feldstein, but remanded Rosenfeld’s custody due to him being considered a threat to divulge further secret information. Rosenfeld’s identity was only permitted for publication on December 23.
Leaked documents
The indictment alleged that Rosenfeld in April sent a picture via the Telegram messaging app of a top-secret document to Feldstein, who was an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, believing it imperative for the prime minister to receive the document directly.
Rosenfeld then allegedly later supplied Feldstein with additional documents. Feldstein allegedly leaked the documents in September to German newspaper Bild after the IDF censor blocked their publication in Israel. Feldstein allegedly did this to deflect criticism over the death of six hostages in Hamas captivity.
Rosenfeld’s family and a significant number of MKs and ministers criticized Stein’s decision to leave Rosenfeld in custody, arguing that, unlike Feldstein, Rosenfeld acted out of a sincere concern for Israeli security, had learned his lesson, and was therefore not a threat to national security. Family members, MKs, and ministers petitioned President Isaac Herzog to pardon Rosenfeld for these reasons.
Despite the state attorney’s filing itself being classified as part of closed-door proceedings, Likud MK Tally Gotliv published on X the last page of the filing, in which the state attorneys overseeing the case, Adv. Dana Alon and Adv.
Adi Arad, quoted Stein’s ruling that despite the low level of danger in releasing Rosenfeld, any additional violations committed by him could cause “significant harm” to national security, and therefore, especially during wartime, it was necessary to keep him in confinement.
Gotliv criticized the attorneys, calling their filing an “unspeakable disgrace” and arguing that it was them – not Rosenfeld – who were a threat to national security.
Gotliv is already under an investigation for divulging secret information, after revealing in the Knesset that activist Prof. Shikma Bressler’s husband was a member of security services.
Legally, MKs are immune from prosecution of acts or words spoken that are related to their service. Gotliv has since authored a bill that will grant near-total immunity to MKs. The bill is in the early stages of the legislation process and is unlikely to proceed.