Court rules: Anat Kam to be jailed Wednesday

Motion to defer sentence of young woman convicted illegal possession of IDF docs rejected by Supreme Court

Aviel Magnezi |Last update: 11.17.11 , 20:53

Supreme Court Justice Miriam Naor on Thursday denied Anat Kam's motion to postpone her 4.5-year prison sentence. Kam, who is slated to be jailed on Wednesday, petitioned for a delay until the court rules on her appeal.

Related articles:

She will begin serving her sentence next Wednesday and not on Sunday as previously reported. The change was made so that she will be able to undergo a Prison Service medical examination.

She said the court did not take into account that she has been under house arrest for the past two years.

Kam was convicted of illegally possessing thousands of classified IDF documents and passing them on to Haaretz reporter Uri Blau without authorization. She copied the documents onto a CD during her military service and kept them in her home.

During Sunday's hearing in Jerusalem, the prosecution said Kam "posed a major threat to the State, and we are paying the price to this day."

The prosecution also said it was odd that Kam complained of being judged prematurely by the press, when she herself had claimed that the public had a right to the information contained in the documents she had leaked.

Justice Naor accepted the prosecution's argument and wrote in her ruling, "Even without having all the (leaked) documents in front of me, I find it hard to say that there is a reasonable chance (Kam's prison) sentence will be cancelled entirely."