Soldier indicted for passing info to extremist settlers

A soldier suspected of passing sensitive information to settlers on planned arrests in the West Bank has been indicted in a military court on “severe” espionage charges.

Elad Yaakov Sela, from the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin, is accused of giving army information to right-wing activists in February.

The indictment must still be signed off by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein.

According to the indictment, Sela, a corporal in the Shahar project for ultra-Orthodox recruits, admitted “to taking secret and sensitive documents from the IDF and showing them to extreme right-wing activists in Bat Ayin, for ideological reasons,” a statement from the Shin Bet security service read.

The information was used to tip off extremist Bat Ayin residents of coming arrests after they attacked a resident of a nearby Palestinian village and tried to burn down a mosque.

When soldiers came to arrest suspects, a melee ensued, and troops were forced to fire into the air. It later became clear that some people had been informed of the arrest raid beforehand, the Shin Bet said.

The Shin Bet called the case “severe.”

“The soldier time after time and on a number of different opportunities took advantage of his access to secret information to pass it to sources who were the subjects of the info,” the military prosecutor said, according to a report in Ynet.

Weinstein is expected to make a decision on the case by Monday night.