Senior IDF officer convicted of series of sexual offenses for filming nude soldiers, civilians

A senior IDF officer accused of filming his female subordinates while nude without their knowledge has been convicted by a military court of dozens of counts of sex offenses and invasion of privacy.

Lt. Col. Dan Sharoni was arrested in 2021 for his actions, which included collecting sexual images of soldiers and some civilians over the course of at least eight years.

A military court has convicted Sharoni of 67 offenses in total: 23 counts of indecency, 39 counts of privacy violation, three counts of illegally hacking a computer, one count of attempted indecency — for a case in which he installed a hidden camera in someone’s room but ultimately only photographed them fully clothed — and one count of conduct unbecoming a soldier.

The IDF says the court “fully accepted the testimonies of the victims of the crime, and rejected the defendant’s version that he acted out of a non-sexual motive.”

According to an indictment in December 2021, Sharoni used numerous hidden cameras, including some placed inside phone chargers, to film soldiers under his command, often installing them in their barracks and showers. He was also accused of taking soldiers’ phones for seemingly innocuous reasons and looking through them to see if they had nude or intimate photos on them and then copying those to his own device.

The indictment listed 49 victims, both female and male, though there may have been others. The majority were soldiers, though he also installed the devices in homes, including his own, and thus also filmed civilians. In addition, he was accused of entering some of his victims’ rooms while they slept and masturbating while filming them.

According to the charge sheet, Sharoni committed his crimes from 2013 to 2021, while he served in three different units in the military. In many of the cases, the victims were soldiers and officers with whom Sharoni had close relationships.

Amid the trial in 2022, a plea deal was signed with Sharoni. This was later nixed following opposition from many of the victims.

No immediate date is set for his sentencing trial. Until then, the IDF says Sharoni is due to undergo a sexual risk assessment.

Sharoni has been dismissed from his position and his military service has been frozen since November 2021. He had been held in jail until being released to house arrest last year.