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Pilot caught with drugs demoted to private
Major in Air Force demoted, sentenced to imprisonment after being caught by police three weeks ago near Lod drug spot with cocaine
Hanan Greenberg
Demotion to private, 30 days of imprisonment (part of which he has already served), and afterwards discharge from the IDF – this is the sentence handed down Wednesday to a pilot in the Air Force who was arrested in the midst of the war in Lebanon in an army vehicle with a dose of cocaine. The affair was exposed by Ynet.
The panel of judges at the army law court of the Air Force, led by Colonel Doron Files, approved the arrangement reached by the parties of the case. According to the arrangement, the officer, a major serving in a senior position in an Air Force squadron, will not be charged with a felony, and the prosecution settled for an indictment of “inappropriate behavior” for possession of drugs in a vehicle without approval. His attorneys hinted that the war affected his condition.
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The pilot was arrested three weeks ago by the Israeli police in “Harakevet” neighborhood in Lod, while driving an army vehicle with a female civilian sitting in the passenger side. He was caught with a 0.39 gram dose of cocaine.
The police officers who were working in the area in the framework of an anti-drugs operation, followed the vehicle without knowing that it was being driven by an Air Force officer. After identifying the purchase of drugs by the civilian sitting in the car, they quickly approached the vehicle and arrested both people.
The officer, who identified himself as a pilot in the Air Force, was transferred to the Military Police, which concluded the investigation. Lab tests taken by the officer showed no traces of drugs in his bloodstream, yet the affair nonetheless caused much embarrassment and shock in the Air Force.
In a hearing held this afternoon at the law court, the officer, who had arrived from prison accompanied by his family and friends, admitted to the charges stated in the indictment. He also admitted giving the civilian who had been with him money to purchase the drug. Afterwards, both parties stated their explanations for the agreement they had reached.
The officer was presented with the possibility of risking an indictment by which the charge would be recorded as a felony in the event of conviction. He preferred the agreement he’d reached with the prosecution and the sentence he was given rather than risking a trial, from which he may have emerged with a criminal record for many years.
The officer’s arrest was extended twice by the court, and today he was brought to the hearing straight from the army prison. According to the sentence he was handed, 30 days of imprisonment, he has a mere few days left in prison, and is expected to be released on the weekend. During the hearing at court, the pilot expressed regret and remorse about the affair, and stated that he is paying a high price. He added that the affair does not characterize him typically, nor will it characterize him in the future. The judges stated in their decision that the officer’s actions are severe, but his unique characteristics justify the approval of the agreement that was reached.
His attorneys, Avi Halvi and Mark Perry told Ynet that they are grateful for the approval of the agreement reached. “The officer was convicted with a disciplinary felony that doesn’t carry criminal charges, and this was the proper solution in our opinion due to the recent fighting – in which he had participated and during which he witnessed the deaths of his friends and was forced to collect their body parts. Because of the trauma he’s been through, the prosecution agreed not to shame him with a criminal record. Today, he is starting a new path as a civilian, and he is paying a high price because of this terrible affair, most of which is due to his being a victim of the incidents of the recent period,” one attorney said.
The IDF authorities will have to make a decision in the next few days whether or not to give the officer his discharge benefit along with the rest of the rights he is entitled to, or to knock him in this area in light of the judicial proceedings.
It should be mentioned that this event has caught the Air Force in the midst of a period in which it is undergoing a “behavior revolution,” in light of a number of difficult affairs – the most prominent one being the rape of a girl in a base in the south, in which dozens of soldiers in compulsory service and two career soldiers took part.
The investigation of the affair in the south has ended and the assumption is that there will be no indictments because of the complexity of the testimonies, mainly the complainant’s testimony.
In spite of this, many of those involved are expected to undergo disciplinary trials given by senior officers, who will have the authority to sentence each of them to 35 days of imprisonment, due to the severity of the charge. The Air Force will have to continue its internal behavior overhaul in light of the Lod affair after the investigation of the war.
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