3 soldiers indicted in rape case

The Military Advocate General filed an indictment on Thursday against three male IDF soldiers serving at the Hatzerim air force base after one of them allegedly raped a female soldier while the other two watched.

The three are accused of rape, sodomy, breach of privacy, obstruction of court proceedings and other offenses. An indictment will be filed against a fourth soldier, Dean Tawil, who is also suspected of rape. Tawil is the only soldier whose name has been released for publication.

The names of soldiers still on active duty who are suspected of serious crimes are usually not disclosed, but the military decided to release Tawil’s name out of concern that he was a serial offender and that making his name public would encourage other victims to come forward.

According to the indictment, filed at a military court, the female soldier entered a room in the gas station at the base with one of the soldiers. He allegedly made sexual advances, but she refused. Three other soldiers then entered the room, Tawil among them. Another member of the group touched the woman on her shoulder but she brushed him off. They all then left the room, apart from Tawil and the female soldier.

Tawil then told the others he was going to have sex with the female soldier and proposed that they watch through the window, which they allegedly did. He then locked the door and — according to the indictment — violently raped the soldier, who was sobbing. Another member of the group then entered the room — the one with whom she had initially arrived — and together with Tawil they got her off the bed and into a bathroom on the premises, where she was raped for a second time.

Tawil filmed the second rape on his phone. After the attack, the soldiers coordinated their testimony and erased the footage from the phone, according to the indictment. Tawil, who was not indicted with the three, is suspected of three acts of rape against this female soldier as well as another female soldier. His indictment will be served pending a hearing. A decision regarding a fifth soldier, suspected of obstruction of justice, will be made next week.

Last month, after the soldiers’ brutality was made public, the Israeli Air Force chief, Gen. Amir Eshel, condemned the case. “The way commanders dealt with this incident is correct and in line with the spirit of the force. The incident will be thoroughly investigated, justice will be done and we will learn and improve. Commanders continue to be accessible to the soldier and her family with warmth and sensitivity. We wish to clarify in the sternest possible terms — there will be zero tolerance for this kind of behavior.”

The number of complaints in the army regarding sexual offenses has increased in recent years — 777 complaints in 2012; the number rose to 930 in 2013; and 1,073 in 2014.