IDF: Intel officer who died in jail caused ‘severe damage to national security’

The intelligence officer who died in a military prison last month was suspected of committing offenses that caused “severe damage to national security,” the Israel Defense Forces says after removing a portion of the gag order surrounding the case.

Key details about the case, including the officer’s identity and the exact nature of his alleged crimes, remain barred from publication under a court-issued gag order. This decision was made despite the fact that the serviceman’s name and photograph have been widely shared online in recent days.

However, the military permits for publication that the officer served in a technological unit in Military Intelligence.

According to the IDF, the officer, who was found in serious condition in his cell last month and pronounced dead in the hospital a short time later, had been accused of “knowingly committing a number of actions that seriously harmed national security.”

“The officer cooperated in his interrogation and admitted to most of the acts he was accused of,” the military says.

The IDF maintains, however, that the soldier acted alone and did not commit the actions on behalf of a foreign government, for financial reasons or out of a specific ideology, but rather for “personal motivations.”

The officer was indicted on a number of security-related offenses and additional weight was given to the charges against him in light of the “significant damage that was caused by his alleged crimes,” the military says.