Botched Spy Hunt: Israel to Pay Millions After Wrongly Imprisoning Ori Almakayes

The Israeli state is in advanced negotiations to pay approximately 3.8 million shekels in compensation to Ori Almakayes, the young man who was arrested as a minor, held in detention for over a year and a half, and prosecuted in a high-profile security case before the charges against him were dropped, according to a report Thursday in Israel Hayom.

The settlement is said to be in its final stages, with the sum currently awaiting final approval from the state comptroller's office.

Almakais was arrested in May 2022 on suspicion of serious security offenses, held behind bars for 44 days, and subsequently indicted for passing classified information. The case centered on a Telegram channel he operated, which authorities alleged contained leaked security material.

But his defense attorneys, Orit Hayun and Din Kokhavi, successfully argued that the information published on his channel was not in fact classified, and had been drawn from openly available Syrian Telegram channels. Following additional reviews by the state prosecution, the indictment was withdrawn in December 2023.

The case has since taken on broader political significance. It is directly connected to the controversy surrounding Roman Gofman, whose subordinates allegedly ran Almakayes as an operative when he was still a minor. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara cited the harm done to Almakais in her submission to the Supreme Court Thursday, calling on the court to strike down Gofman's appointment to a senior position and arguing that his conduct in the affair reflected a serious failure of integrity.