Anat Kamm gets 4.5 years for stealing IDF documents
Tel Aviv court sentences former soldier for gathering and possessing secret military documents, passing them to "Haaretz" reporter Uri Blau.
By JOANNA PARASZCZUK, JPOST.COM STAFFThe Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Anat Kamm to four and a half years in prison Sunday morning. The 54-month sentence was much shorter than the 15 years prosecutors sought in the case.Kamm was convicted in a confidential plea bargain, in which she admitted to gathering and possession of secret information and passing it to others.RELATED:Sides argue over Kamm sentencing behind closed doors Reporter in Kamm espionage case returns to Israel In addition to the 4.5-year prison sentence, Kamm was given a one-and-a-half year suspended sentence. The two years she spent under house arrest were not considered as time served.During her army service, Kamm stole over 700 secret army documents and passed them to a correspondent of Hebrew language daily Haaretz.According to the plea bargain, Kamm admitted to those charges but not to a more serious original charge of conspiring to deliberately harm state security, the original charge against her, which carries a life sentence.Kamm spent nearly two years under house arrest and was forced to be accompanied everywhere she went, even to bathroom breaks during the trial.In numerous media interviews, Kamm has said she leaked the information because she thought it would bring to light injustices committed by the IDF.Ron Friedman contributed to this report