Lawyers for key Qatargate suspect Jonatan Urich suggested Monday that the senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be permitted to meet with him and return to work in the Prime Minister’s Office now that restrictions placed on him have expired.

The comments came a day after the Israel Police handed its investigation into the scandal over to the State Attorney’s Office, saying it had completed its probe and recommending a two-month extension to the sanctions on Urich, including barring him from working in the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court rejected the police request to extend the restrictions.

The decision is expected to be appealed by the police at the Lod District Court on Tuesday, but in the meantime, the restrictive conditions imposed on Urich have expired, potentially paving the way for him to meet with Netanyahu.

Urich, along with former Netanyahu spokesman Eli Feldstein and ex-campaign adviser Yisrael Einhorn, is accused of taking money to spearhead a public relations campaign to cast Qatar in a positive light for over a year after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, despite the Gulf state’s strong ties to the terror group, and doing so while working in the Prime Minister’s........

© The Times of Israel