Ex-MK says she asked for outside probe into prison ‘pimping’ claims years ago

Former Labor MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin says on Twitter that she petitioned several times in 2018 for an external body to be appointed to probe allegations that female soldiers guarding a prison were used as sexual bait for terror inmates and were subject to sexual abuse and harassment.

Nahmias-Verbin shares a copy of a response she received from then-public security minister Gilad Erdan in which he says he had already appointed a prison official to look into the allegations and that the case had been transferred to the police.

In the letter, Erdan promises to take the allegations seriously and follow up on the matter pending the results of the police probe.

Despite his statement, the case, which received little media attention before Wednesday’s bombshell testimony, was closed for lack of evidence, according to Hebrew language reports, and there was no known follow-up.

Nahmias-Verbin praises current Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev for asking Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to open a probe into the claims, following an outcry.

“It was clear [then] that [an outside probe] was the only way,” she tweets. “It’s what is needed immediately and it’s good that @omerbarlev has gone to the attorney general.”