May 24, 2010
Woman on trial for espionage
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Anat Kam said she was happy to finally leave her home after five months under house arrest. Monday's hearing was held behind closed doors. -- PHOTO: AFP
TEL AVIV - A 23-YEAR-OLD Israeli woman went on trial on Monday on charges of serious espionage for allegedly leaking military documents and could face a maximum of life behind bars. Arriving at the Tel Aviv District Court, Anat Kam said she was happy to finally leave her home after five months under house arrest. Monday's hearing was held behind closed doors. She is accused of stealing about 2,000 documents, including details of operational planning and force deployment, during her military service between 2005 and 2007.
Some of the documents are the alleged source of a 2008 Haaretz newspaper report that Israeli soldiers had received orders to carry out targeted killings of Palestinian militants in violation of an Israeli supreme court order. Kam is charged with 'serious espionage' that endangered Israel's security, a charge which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. The leak 'posed a direct and real threat to the lives of IDF (Israel Defence Force) soldiers and Israeli citizens,' the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, Yuval Diskin, told Israeli editors last month when a gag order on the case was lifted.
'If these documents, even part of them, reach enemy hands or foreign intelligence agencies, this could cause serious, ongoing security damage and danger to IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens,' he was quoted as saying. Kam said her actions were ideologically motivated and that she wanted to publicise the Israeli military's policies in the Palestinian territories. 'In the test of history, those who warned against war crimes have been forgiven,' she told interrogators, according to the YNet News website. The Haaretz articles were published in October and November 2008 but it was more than a year later before Kam was arrested. She has been under house arrest since last December. -- AFP
