IDF officer accused of sexual offences says relations were consensual

The lawyer defending an IDF officer currently under investigation for committing sexual offenses against a subordinate insisted that relations between the military man, a colonel by rank, and a female officer were entirely consensual.

The lawyer, IDF chief defense counsel Col. Asher Halperin, asserted that the officer was involved in an affair over several months with his subordinate and that he was in possession of email correspondences between the two in which the accuser expressed her love for the colonel, according to a Sunday report by Israel Radio.

Halperin stated that following the procurement of the emails, the colonel was not indicted for sexual offenses.

The lawyer also claimed that the correspondences were written after the alleged criminal misconduct. Halperin asserted that the accuser intentionally withheld this information from investigators, stating she had been summoned for further questioning following suspicion that she had delivered false testimony.

The colonel appeared at a disciplinary hearing on Thursday and was reprimanded after pleading guilty to exploiting his position of power. This is the second time that the officer was censured for inappropriate behavior.

According to statistics released by the IDF last month, 37 sexual offenses were reported in the military in 2014 — a 40 percent increase from the previous year.