The Beit Lid military court convicted Lt. Col. Dan Sharoni on Wednesday of 39 counts of invasion of privacy and 23 counts of indecent acts for secretly filming female IDF soldiers.
"There was no dispute regarding the credibility of the victims," began the head of the panel of judges, Col. Tali Freid, who started to review the case and noted that the investigation was professional and thorough.
"There are significant discrepancies between the defendant's version and the actual findings. The defendant tried to manipulate the investigators, taking one step forward and immediately two steps back," she claimed.
She provided an example: "In his testimony at the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division, he testified that he is very technological, while on the witness stand, he said that he is not a technological person. In further investigations, he also gave false testimony and even said so."
Other judges were Col. Anat Carmeli and Lt. Col. Chaim Belilty, who fulfilled the role of deputy president.
Fried summarized the court's decision: "We reject the defendant's claim that he was not focused during his investigations. Our impression of him was very negative. There is no dispute that the materials he accumulated were in his possession and under his control."
Judge rejected Sharoni's claims
The judge rejected the defense's claims about the indictment. Sharoni bowed his head while the judges read the summary of the verdict.
Later, Sharoni will be sent for a probation review, with the next hearing in the case scheduled for August.
In September 2022, the military attorney's office announced that it was withdrawing from the plea agreement signed with Lt. Col. Sharoni.
The decision was made after examining the different parts of the agreement that had already been signed and a repeated hearing of the victims of the crime.
Notification of the prosecution's decision was delivered to Sharoni's attorney and to the victims.