Kamm, in jail for leaking classified documents to Blau, claims publishing pictures of the documents led to her arrest.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBanat kamm court 311(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Anat Kamm on Thursday sued the daily newspaper Haaretz and Uri Blau, one of its well-known journalists, for NIS 2.6 million for their alleged parts in causing her legal problems with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).Kamm is currently serving a three-and- a-half-year prison sentence on a conviction for leaking classified documents to Blau.According to media reports, Kamm claims that Haaretz’s decision to publish pictures of some of the classified documents, without consulting with her, along with some of the articles based on those documents, was what caused the Shin Bet to suspect her.More specifically, the Shin Bet was able to figure out from the documents that were published that the leak came from inside the office of the IDF homefront commander .The lawsuit also claims that Blau violated his responsibilities toward Kamm by turning over certain documents only with the condition that they not be used legally against the originator of the leaks, without also adding the condition that they not be used investigatively to determine who leaked the documents, said the reports.Ilan Bombach’s office confirmed that it had filed the lawsuit on Kamm’s behalf.Besides Blau, reports indicated that publisher Amos Schocken, and thendeputy editor Avi Zilverburg were also named as defendants.The NIS 2.6m. was calculated from a number of sources, including lost wages, extensive lawyers’ fees and others.In September, Blau was given a four-month suspended prison sentence to be served through community service for his part in the affair.In July, Blau pleaded guilty to possessing classified information without intent to harm state security, after citing classified IDF documents stolen by Kamm in reports accusing the army of defying a High Court ruling against targeted killings.
