Jaffa Military Court also orders serviceman to compensate his victim, whom he sexually assaulted in her Tel Aviv home
An IDF soldier who was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting a female soldier who served in his combat unit was sentenced on Wednesday to five and a half years in prison, the army said.
In a statement, the military said the crimes were committed in the victim’s home in June 2017.
In addition to his prison term, the soldier also received an unspecified suspended sentence and was demoted to the rank of private, the lowest in the IDF.
He was also ordered to pay his victim NIS 15,000 ($4,300) in compensation.
The soldier was charged last July at the IDF Military Court in Jaffa and was convicted last month.
According to the indictment, the crimes occurred after a group of soldiers from the unit were in Tel Aviv on a social night out in June. In accordance with army rules, despite the suspected rape happening in “civilian circumstances,” the case was tried in an IDF military court.
During the night out, the two kissed, but the female soldier broke it off and made clear to the defendant that she wasn’t interested in a relationship with him.
As the night was winding down, the female soldier invited those who didn’t have a place to sleep back to her house, including her alleged rapist.
At one point, the soldier allegedly entered the victim’s room and kissed her, despite her opposition. She told him to leave, but then said he could return so long as he understood that it was only “as friends and nothing more,” according to the charge sheet.
He came back to the room, and, according to the prosecution, in the middle of the night, the victim awoke to find the soldier on top of her, trying to have sex with her.
According to the indictment, she struggled with him, asking him to stop, but he raped her, telling her that she “loves it.”
Once he finished, the victim kicked him out of the house, the prosecution said in its indictment.
The identity of the soldier, as well as the unit in which they serve, is kept under a court-issued gag order.
He was arrested on June 28, after the female soldier filed a complaint against him, and has been in custody ever since.
As reported by The Times of Israel