The Navy's military court convicted Maj.-Lt.-Cmdr. Priel Klimi from Migdal Ha'emek of rape of a civilian worker on his base on Sunday. Klimi, who is married with children, denied the accusations at first, but after he gave over DNA samples that matched the evidence at the scene, he claimed that the woman had consented.
The three judges led by Lt.-Col-Cmdr. Zayid Falakh found Klimi not guilty of one of the counts of rape he was on trial for and of using his weapon, but in the bottom light, they wrote "we found the complainant's version believable, and we can give it the utmost credence even though she sometimes wasn't accurate." On the other hand, the judges found that Klimi's version of the events was "unbelievable and incorrect" and added that "we have no doubt that the victim's narrative is true."
Klimi was initially arrested at the beginning of 2020. His lawyers Tammy Ulman, Shahaf Ulman and Jacob Shlomovitz requested a ban on his name being publicized because he comes from an orthodox community, and his wife could lose her job. They also argued that gossip had spread through the community and presented documents from rabbis that know the accused that said that publicizing his name could lead to him being shunned. The court did not accept the request.
According to the indictment that was submitted by Capt.-Lt. Mai Arbel following the investigation carried out by the military police, at another time, Klimi told the victim to go and clean the storage closet located in an isolated part of the base. When she entered it, Klimi locked the door, covered her mouth and raped her. A week later he cornered her at the same closet and attacked her again.
The indictment showed that this was repeated multiple times since, and one of the times, he threatened her with his weapon.
A report that came out in January showed that out of 1,542 sexual assault complaints in 2020, only 31 indictments were filed.