Dramatic day for 'Qatargate': PM Netanyahu summoned for questioning after arrest of two aides

The affair known as 'Qatargate' took a dramatic turn on Monday, as the Israel Police first arrested two aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, before he was summoned to an urgent questioning in Jerusalem while he was testifying in his ongoing corruption trial in Tel Aviv.

The aides were identified as Eli Feldstein, the main suspect in another ongoing case, and Yonatan Urich, Hebrew media reported. They were already detained and questioned around two weeks ago, however, now the two were arrested and will be questioned under caution. 

Feldstein was already under house arrest for his suspected role in the Leaked Documents Case, in which he is accused of leaking secret documents to the foreign press in an attempt to sway Israeli public opinion. 

Shortly after their arrest, Netanyahu himself was summoned to give an open testimony in the affair by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, interrupting and ending his testimony in his corruption trial as he left to give testimony at the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit. 

Netanyahu’s defense attorney, Amit Haddad, left the court early in order to speak with the two suspects, as Haddad is also serving as one of Urich’s defense attorneys in the Qatargate investigation. 

Netanyahu was summoned to give open testimony, meaning he is not considered a suspect in the investigation. After his testimony didn't raise suspicion that he might be directly involved in the affairs, the police and the A-G decided not to interrogate him under caution.

This means that as soon as Israeli investigators have a solid basis, they can stop the open testimony, "caution" the suspect that anything he says may be used against him, and that he may consult a lawyer. Once that happens, the person giving an open testimony becomes a criminal suspect. 

The Basic Law of the Government states that "no criminal investigation will be opened against the Prime Minister except with the consent of the Attorney General,” which necessitated the attorney general’s instruction to police investigators that Netanyahu’s testimony could turn into an interrogation under caution. 

Specific details about the case, which is commonly called 'Qatargate' in the Israeli press, have been placed under a broad gag-order by a court, however, the identity of the two suspects was reported in several Hebrew news sites, and the identity of Urich was confirmed by a statement from Netanyahu’s Likud party, which condemned the arrest. 

"The thuggish arrest of Yonatan Urich is a new low," the Likud party said in a statement, claiming that "after the fabricated investigations initiated by the Attorney General's Office and the head of the Shin Bet into the falsification of protocols in the Prime Minister's Office and the blackmailing of an officer in the Prime Minister's Military Secretariat blew up in their faces, they invented another new fabricated affair about Qatar, which will also explode very quickly.” 

The Likud also accused the attorney general and the police of trying “to prevent the dismissal of the head of the Shin Bet, using Urich and others as cannon fodder.” 

“Their goal is to carry out a coup d'état by means of arrest warrants,” the party said. 

“This is not an investigation. This is not law enforcement. This is an attempt to assassinate democracy and an attempt to replace the will of the people with the rule of the bureaucrats,” the party concluded. 

Ynet reported that a journalist who was also summoned for open questioning was given a warning and is now being questioned as a potential suspect. Due to the gag order, the journalist’s name was not released. 

As part of the investigation of the three, Lahav 433 investigators are expected to examine what, and to what extent, Prime Minister Netanyahu knew about the Qatari involvement with aides in his office. 

Investigators will also attempt to find out whether Netanyahu knew that Feldstein had been disqualified from receiving a security clearance, and whether he knew of Urich’s apparent involvement in marketing and consulting for Qatar while also working for the Prime Minister’s Office. 

Opposition leader Yair Lapid attacked the Likud for its statement, which he said is missing an important sentence. 

“The sentence that does not appear in the Likud statement and that should be noted [is]: No one from Benjamin Netanyahu's office received money from Qatar,” Lapid told the Knesset plenum on Monday.

“The reason this sentence does not appear there is that people in Benjamin Netanyahu's office received money from a hostile country during wartime.” 

Lapid said the investigation is necessary, calling the scandal “disturbing and dangerous.” 

“That's what he's being investigated for now; that's what they all need to be investigated for. Of all the criminal security scandals in the Prime Minister's Office, this is not only the most serious, it's also the most disturbing and dangerous,” Lapid concluded.