Almog Cohen/screenshot: Keshet 12
Supreme Court Judge Yosef Elron rejected today (Thursday) the appeal filed by MK Almog Cohen, who requested to reveal details about the indictment regarding the serious security affair during which a man impersonating an officer managed to obtain confidential information. Among other things, the impersonator was able to get his hands on confidential information about The order of the security forces, existing means in use by the IDF, missing means, explanations of classified capabilities and more.
Judge Alron justified his decision with the following words: "My opinion is that the current situation, in which the blackened indictment was allowed to be published, is the right one for this time. It can be assumed that the state, as it has acted so far, will add and examine over time the possibility of publishing more details about the serious affair The object of the indictment. At this stage, as mentioned, the public interest in publishing the name of the 2nd respondent himself and the names of the parties he met with is not great, and he withdrew for justified reasons."
dismissed the appeal.
Judge Elron/Flash 90, Jonathan Zindel
He asked to reveal details of the indictment.
MK Almog Cohen/Knesset Speaker, Noam Moshkowitz
The indictment submitted as part of the case indicates that the accused served in the IDF for 6 years in several units and was discharged with the rank of lieutenant. At the time he committed the offenses, he was serving as a reserve officer with the rank of lieutenant. He served in the reserves in one-day service on three occasions in 2018. According to the indictment, the accused impersonated to an officer with the rank of captain and falsely presented himself as someone who was sent on behalf of an IDF formation, and fraudulently gained access to classified information at the highest level of classification, documented classified information in various ways and on several occasions shared confidential information with civilian and military authorities who were not authorized to do so.
In the indictment it is described that the defendant "recruited" himself into the reserves even though he did not receive an order 8. He contacted an assistant commander on WhatsApp and asked to enlist in the reserve service. When he arrived at the division base, he introduced himself and told those present there that he was an intelligence officer. The same person told the defendant that he was not knows him. On that day, he approached an officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel and falsely introduced himself as a soldier from a special unit. He indicated to the senior officer that he wanted to help. The same officer told the defendant that he did not know him and did not need his help and left the scene. Under circumstances that are still unknown, the defendant He still managed to be present at situation assessments, in a control center and even sat around a situation assessment table in the Operations Wing. The
indictment further describes how the impostor met with other staff officers, and helped clarify the recruitment status of various brigades and dealt with various problems. The next day he photographed soldiers as well as military computer screens. That day, he met another person and went with him to the command. During his stay there, the defendant wore the rank of captain on his shoulders, even though he knew his rank was lieutenant in order to mislead those around him. In the evening hours of that day, he participated, even though he was not qualified, in assessing the situation and introduced himself as "We are performing.
In one of the cases that evening, he turned to a female soldier on the spot in an attempt to help, and was told that he needed permission from an information security officer.
The soldier gave him her cell phone so that he could put his number in the contact list on her device.
So he took her phone and sent two WhatsApp messages from it without the soldier's knowledge: "We would be happy for you to see in HML how we can streamline the work, tell us what to do when we receive conflicting reports from the field." The purpose of the messages was, according to the indictment, so that they could be used by him to create a false representation to soldiers and commanders that he is authorized to handle matters in the South Command.
The accused wore the rank of captain even though he knew his rank was lieutenant (the photo has no relation to the article)/Reuven Castro
Another day passes and the accused met the man who was his commander.
He presented himself as an officer with solutions to operational challenges and tried to convince him to get access to information.
So he asked them to sign a document confirming his entry to the base.
That day he came to a person, whose name and position are prohibited from publication, and asked him to write a document authorizing him to perform various actions.
The same person opened a format at his request on the computer and wrote: "Appointment letter for a captain in response: I confirm that a captain in response (the accused) will be appointed to the Special Operations Command in KML, Commander of the Southern Command." As stated, this was a false appointment letter. Today, the accused spoke with a reservist about materials classified as secret and top secret, gathered and kept secret information by recording the conversation that was saved on his mobile device.
On October 11, he came to fraudulently receive another certification document and received another appointment letter under which he could serve as the commander of a special unit in the HM To.
The indictment describes how the accused took advantage of the pressure and got what he wanted.
The next day, using the same letters of authorization, the defendant managed to bring two non-military people into the base while making it clear to the B.S. soldier that they could be admitted because he had permission.
The accused collected, kept and gave more confidential information while recording phone conversations and exposed those two people to the contents of the conversation.
On October 15, the defendant corresponded with an officer and falsely presented himself as an operations officer looking to recruit reservists with appropriate qualifications, and during their correspondence gave her confidential information even though she was not authorized to receive it.
The indictment also describes that between October 7 and October 15, on several occasions, he was present in sensitive places including headquarters, operations rooms, war rooms and discussions that he was not authorized to participate in, and of course he was not invited to them and that he does not have an information security clearance.
He was able to obtain, collect and write down classified information while documenting the things in photographs on his cell phone. Confidential information about the order of the security forces, existing measures used by the IDF, missing measures, explanations of classified capabilities, etc. On October 15, he was arrested and is being prosecuted for crimes of receiving something fraudulently under aggravating circumstances, secret information, serious espionage and entering a military location.
More on the same topic:
Almog Cohen
Yosef Elron
Supreme Court