Three officers indicted over drowning of soldier during hike
Officers agree to plea deal after investigation finds they acted negligently, failed to follow orders, leading to the death of Sgt. Evyatar Yosefi in a flooded stream last year
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
In an irregular move, military prosecutors on Wednesday filed indictments against three officers from the Paratroopers Brigade in connection with the drowning of a soldier in a swollen stream last January, the military said.
The officers — the serviceman’s team commander, deputy company commander and battalion commander — agreed to plead guilty to their crimes in exchange for lighter sentences.
The highly uncommon indictments came after an investigation into the drowning death of Sgt. Evyatar Yosefi, 20, found that the officers in question behaved negligently and failed to follow safety instructions from their commanders.
On January 7, 2019, the Paratroopers Brigade’s reconnaissance battalion was hiking around the Hilazon stream near the northern city of Karmiel, working in pairs to learn how to navigate and survive in the wilderness.
During the navigation exercise, Yosefi, from the Tel Aviv suburb of Givat Shmuel, and his comrade received the order over the radio that the unit was regrouping. As they made their way to the designated spot, the pair came to the Hilazon stream, which was swollen from the previous night’s rainfall.
They decided to cross the stream, but Yosefi slipped on the muddy riverbank as he got to the other side, falling into the water. His partner threw him a rope, but the paratrooper could not hold onto it, and was swept away. His body was found several hours later.
The Military Advocate General’s probe into Yosefi’s death found that the officers failed to adequately prepare for the inclement weather and its effects on the ground and ignored safety instructions.
“The investigation found that the officers were apparently negligent in their duties and violated orders,” the military said Wednesday.
Under the plea deal, Yosefi’s battalion commander received a suspended prison sentence, but will be allowed to continue his career in the military. The decision to give the relatively light sentence to the lieutenant colonel was due to the fact that he was not directly involved in the navigation exercise, though he was found to have failed to properly prepare his troops for the mission.
The deputy company commander will be required to perform 100 days of community service within the military and he will be demoted by one rank.
The team commander will be required to perform 45 days of community service and he, too, will be demoted by one rank.
The details of the plea deal were presented to the serviceman’s family, the military said.
These sentences are in addition to a series of disciplinary measures that Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi approved last March, in which the soldier’s team leader, his deputy platoon commander, his platoon commander, the commander of his training program, and his battalion commander were all dismissed from their positions.
The commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, Col. Yaakov “Yaki” Dolef, also received an official censure on his record, the military said at the time.
In a statement in March, Kohavi accused the officers of unprofessional and, in some cases, immoral conduct.
“This is an event of the utmost gravity, which led to a tragic result whose roots are in a series of errors and mistakes in preparing for the exercise and the way in which it was carried out, under unprofessional leadership by the entire chain of command and unethical leadership by part of the command. This led to recklessness in the exercise under the gaze of the commanders and without them doing anything to prevent it,” the army chief said.
“In the incident in question the commanders throughout the chain of command did not act in accordance with the extreme vigilance expected of them in planning the exercise and in directing it,” Kohavi added.
