Last update - 00:00 15/09/2006
Ten air force men get 21-42 days in jail for having sex with minor
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
Ten soldiers serving at the air force base in Nevatim were sentenced Thursday to 21 to 42 days in jail apiece for having sex with a minor at the base.
Nine of the 10 confessed; the tenth pleaded innocent, but was convicted by his comrades' testimony. All were convicted of unbecoming behavior in a disciplinary hearing conducted by the base commander.
Next week, another 22 soldiers will face a disciplinary hearing on the same charge, while a sergeant major and a lieutenant will be tried for failing to report that the soldiers were sleeping with the girl, even though they knew about it.
The base commander decided to hold the disciplinary hearings after a Military Police investigation found insufficient evidence for criminal indictments. Although the girl was below the age of consent - meaning that all the soldiers were guilty of statutory rape - she told investigators that she had lied to the soldiers, telling them that she was 17, and investigators found no evidence that the soldiers knew that she was in fact underage. She also said that the sex was consensual, and investigators found no evidence to contradict this. Moreover, the girl's mother and stepfather said that they would not allow her to testify in court to spare her further trauma.
The girl was a school dropout, and had therefore been roaming the base for months with little to do when these incidents occurred.