NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) — Israel’s attorney general on Thursday said a close adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face criminal prosecution for leaking secret information to a German newspaper with the intent of harming the country’s security.The announcement marked another scandal for the embattled Netanyahu as the country gears up for elections this fall. Netanyahu himself is on trial for corruption in three separate cases and faces tensions within his coalition that threaten to dissolve parliament.The attorney general’s office said it plans to indict Jonatan Urich in the leak of a classified document in 2024 to a German tabloid that critics said was aimed to help absolve Netanyahu of blame for failed negotiations with Hamas during the war in Gaza. It said Urich would also be charged with possession of confidential information and destruction of evidence.
Netanyahu’s office refused to comment on the planned indictment. But Urich’s lawyers told Israel’s Army Radio channel that the decision was “wrong and disconnected from the evidence.” Urich reacted with a sarcastic one-line post on social media, saying “It’s quite something that the AG didn’t ask for a death sentence.”
