The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court on Friday ordered two close associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—Jonathan Urich, a senior adviser, and Eli Feldstein, a former spokesperson—to be released to house arrest until April 22, rejecting a police request to extend their detention by an additional seven days.

The hearing was part of the ongoing investigation into the so-called “Qatargate” affair, in which the two are suspected of acting on behalf of the Qatari government while serving in senior advisory roles to the prime minister.

During the proceedings, attorney Amit Hadad accused the police of employing an unlawful interrogation tactic against the defendants. He claimed investigators deliberately orchestrated a meeting between Urich and Feldstein after their separate questioning sessions in order to prompt unauthorized contact and potential obstruction of justice.

Hadad further alleged that Urich lost consciousness during his interrogation after complaining of chest pains and was denied timely medical care. A police representative countered that Urich had declined to be taken to a hospital out of concern he would be exposed to the media.

Judge Menachem Mizrahi issued a sharp rebuke to law enforcement, expressing skepticism over a last-minute security opinion presented by police to justify extending detention based on public danger. “This is not a legal opinion—it’s a draft. Who signed it? It contradicts the very claim of complexity,” the judge said. “You initially based the arrest on suspicion of obstruction. Drafting an opinion like this doesn’t take three days. If this is a security case and there was contact with a foreign agent, how can there not have been a danger to the public from the start?”

Until now, police had argued for keeping the suspects in custody solely over concerns of obstructing the investigation. The new claim of public endangerment, based on a preliminary opinion from the Shin Bet security agency, was introduced only at Friday’s hearing—prompting the judge’s criticism that it appeared inconsistent with the earlier framing of the case.