The Military Advocate General filed grave charges against two soldiers for the alleged severe abuse of a third, Ynet has learned Thursday. The two were charged with several counts of assault and battery, destroying evidence and witness intimidation.
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The accused, a male soldier and a female soldier who serve in an antiaircraft unit, are suspected of targeting another female soldier and systematically abusing her for several weeks.
The indictment against the two details an incident in which the two forced open her shirt – at which point the male soldier groped her chest and then proceeded to bite her; and another incident in which they beat her to the point of needing medical attention. The beating was filmed using their cell phone cameras.
A third incident describes how the two cornered the young women in an office on their base and kicked her in the back; a forth incident gives an account of them grabbing her, forcing her to the floor, sitting on top of her and beating her all over her body; and a fifth incident details how the male soldier pushed her off a chair, thereby wounding her.
After the last incident the soldier was evacuated to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, where the doctors ordered her to rest for a week.
The Military Prosecution added a charge of destroying evidence to the indictment, noting that once the accused learned the Military Police was investigating them, they erased footage of the ongoing abuse from their cellular phones.
The two were also charged with witness intimidation, after the Military Police learned they had threatened their victim in an attempt to prevent her from pressing charges.
A Military Court ordered the suspects be separated and remain confined to barracks in their respective bases.
The Military Defender's Office, however, said there is more to the case than meets the eye. Attorney Captain Alon Harel, representing the male defendant, said that "the events depicted in the indictment were part of playful jesting between the plaintiff and the defendant… and some of which were even initiated by the plaintiff.
"We will prove in the course of the trial that the accusations against him are false, stemming from nothing but a vengeful streak," he said.
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