Colonel faces disciplinary hearing after classified papers stolen
Military advocate general will not press criminal charges against Commando Brigade chief Avi Blot, saying documents’ classified content not significant
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
The military advocate general called for a disciplinary hearing for the head of the IDF’s Commando Brigade, after a number of military documents were stolen from the colonel’s vehicle earlier this month, the army said on Tuesday.
The officer, Col. Avi Blot, will not face criminal charges, as the documents were left behind accidentally and did not contain significant classified information, the military said.
On June 14, Blot parked his car during a field trip with other senior officers, leaving behind his bag. The officer remembered to take his pistol and a military cellphone from the bag, but forgot that it also held a number of sensitive documents, the army investigation found.
It is a violation of army regulations to leave classified documents unsupervised.
“Since the officer did not deliberately leave the documents in his car, and in light of the contents of the documents that were stolen, the MAG decided that the incident will be dealt with in a disciplinary hearing before the head of the Central Command, Maj. Gen. Nadav Padan,” the army said.
The theft occurred a day before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned Blot for a surprise interview for the job of military secretary to the prime minister, which is often seen as a stepping stone to more senior positions.
Netanyahu had already interviewed several candidates to replace his current secretary, Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, who is due to take over as commander of the Gaza Division.
It was not immediately clear how the document theft would affect Blot’s chances for the position.
In recent years, a number of senior IDF officers have had documents stolen from cars and homes, leading to severe consequences.
Former Manpower Directorate’s head Maj. Gen. Hagai Topolanski resigned from the army in December 2016 after a laptop containing classified information was stolen from his home.
The year before, Col. Ilan Levy was summarily dismissed from his position after classified documents were stolen from his car, where he had accidentally left them. The documents were later located.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.