Israeli former soldier admits leaking secret papers

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - A former Israeli soldier pleaded guilty on Sunday to leaking classified military documents to a newspaper which later reported allegations of a policy to assassinate Palestinian fightes. Tel Aviv district court accepted a plea bargain with Anat Kamm, 24, dropping some of the original charges including harming state security, but convicted her of possessing and distributing secret information. Kamm had taken about 2,000 military papers during her mandatory army service and passed classified information on to a correspondent for Israel's Haaretz daily. The newspaper subsequently reported in 2008 that top army officers had authorised the assassination of Palestinian fighters in a possible violation of Israeli law. "She's a young woman who at the time believed she stumbled onto (evidence of) war crimes," Kamm's lawyer Avigdor Feldman told Army Radio. Kamm will be sentenced later. The offences she pleaded guilty to carry a maximum jail term of 15 years under Israeli law.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt