By JPOST.COM STAFFPublished: DECEMBER 13, 2009 09:15erez efrati 248.88(photo credit: Channel 10)Advertisement
The former bodyguard of IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi has been charged with attempted rape and attempted sodomy in the attack of a young woman last month at the Tel Aviv port.
The indictment against IDF Capt. Erez Efrati was served at the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court early Sunday morning. The court also extended Efrati's remand by 10 days, and ordered him to undergo a psychological evaluation, as he claims not to remember the event.
Last Wednesday, the Tel Aviv court lifted a gag order that prohibited publication of the 30-year-old Moshav Batzra resident's name and image. Efrati is a member of the IDF's elite personal security unit.
The attack allegedly occurred over two weeks ago, after Efrati left a strip club in which he was celebrating his own bachelor party. He had been scheduled to get married December 2, but he and his fiancee have called off the wedding.
Police reduced the initial charge of sodomizing a victim to attempted sodomizing last week, after forensic DNA lab tests concluded that Efrati's semen was recovered from the crime scene.
Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.
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