Ilya immigrated to Israel to enlist and serve as a fighter • Years later, he was arrested at Ben Gurion Airport and indicted • Assisted by military defense

• Illustrative image // Photo: Liron Moldovan

A new immigrant who immigrated to Israel to serve in the IDF and graduated with honors, left the country at the end of his service to assist his family. Long years later, he was recently arrested at the airport on his return from family visit, due to lack of reserve days to which he did not know he had been summoned.

Ilya (pseudonym) was born in Kazakhstan to a poor Jewish family and grew up there. Upon reaching the age of 22 (2008), he decided to immigrate to Israel, solely to serve in the IDF in a combat role and out of a sense of mission and Zionism.

He enlisted in the service of a combat unit as a lone soldier and served as a fighter for three full years. As part of his service, he took an active part in several important operational events and received a certificate of excellence from his commanders. When military service was completed with honors, Ilya returned to his family in his native country with the aim of financially assisting and caring for his sick mother. A few years later, Ilya returned to Israel to settle down and start a family in Israel, as well as to work and financially support the family.

Earlier this month, Ilya returned from a visit to Kazakhstan to visit his family, as he always did, without any problems or restrictions. To his great surprise, Ilya was arrested at the airport at Ben Gurion Airport on suspicion of evading some 24 reserve days for allegedly being summoned in 2012, a year after he was released from regular service, although he was not in the country at all and military officials knew it. Offense of absence from reserve service for eight years and requested his arrest until the end of proceedings.

Arrested at the airport // Photo: Ami Shuman

The military defense that represented Ilya in the legal proceedings revealed to the military tribunal that he had been summoned to reserve service in an order sent for the first time to an old address and another time when military officials knew he was not in the country. Thus, the military defense revealed that, in fact, there was no telephone contact with Ilya regarding the summoning of the reserve and no letter was sent to its relevant address. In light of all this, the military defense objected to the prosecution's request for detention until the end of the proceedings and the tribunal accepted its arguments and ordered his release on conditions.

After dealing with the lawsuit, the military defense attorney was able to convince the military prosecution time to change the indictment so that he was convicted of a disciplinary offense that carries no criminal record, and to settle for only a financial fine.

Elia's defense attorneys, Lieutenant Michael Geller and Liat Grosberg, a military defense attorney, said: "This is an extraordinary case, who came to Israel alone, enlisted as a volunteer, for Zionist reasons, and performed a full military service as a fighter, who graduated with honors. "We are apprehending that both the military tribunal and the military prosecution have received our full allegations, and he has been released from custody and the indictment was released without any criminal charges being placed on him."