The state has decided to suspend a witness intimidation case against three of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides due to a failure to extradite one of the suspects, Yisrael Einhorn, from Serbia to Israel for the trial, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said Friday.
“The state informed the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court that due to the non-arrival in Israel of Yisrael Einhorn for trial, it was decided to delay the legal proceedings,” her office said in a statement. “The proceedings will be renewed with his arrival.”
In a court notice published by Hebrew media, Baharav-Miara said, without naming Einhorn, that there was currently “no practical option to bring a central and vital witness in for testimony,” and that she had instructed prosecutors to keep her informed about “efforts to locate the witness.”
Einhorn, Jonatan Urich and Ofer Golan were indicted in February 2025 for harassing Shlomo Filber, a key witness in Netanyahu’s corruption trial. The three allegedly sent a car with a megaphone to Filber’s home in 2019 in a bid to pressure him to retract his testimony against the premier.
At the time of the alleged incident, Einhorn served as a Likud spokesman, while Urich served as a strategic adviser and a senior official in Likud’s election campaign staff, and Golan was a spokesman for the Netanyahu family and the director of the 2019 Likud election campaign.
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Netanyahu was, at that point, under investigation for wrongdoing during the three years he served as communications minister, in addition to serving as prime minister. Filber was appointed by Netanyahu to serve as the director general of the Communications Ministry.
Netanyahu was indicted in early 2020 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust for allegedly peddling political favors in exchange for luxury gifts and positive press coverage. He denies the allegations and says the trial against him is a witch hunt.
Aides Yisrael Einhorn (left) and Jonatan Urich (center) with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019. (Courtesy/ File)
Prosecutors have failed to secure the extradition of Einhorn, who has refused to return to Israel from Serbia, where he is an adviser to President Aleksandar Vučić.
The court last month requested prosecutors inform it if they wished to proceed with the trial against Golan and Urich, or to withdraw the witness intimidation charges because of Einhorn’s absence.
Einhorn and Urich are both also suspects in the Qatargate and Bild affairs, where they are suspected of maintaining criminal ties with the Hamas-backing Gulf state, and of leaking stolen intelligence to the German tabloid in a bid to quell growing public anger at Netanyahu over the war in Gaza.
Although Einhorn has refused to return to Israel, he was questioned in Serbia by Israeli police in July 2025 over his role in both the document leak and the Qatargate affair. In January, police declared him a “fugitive criminal.
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