A plea deal was signed in the "Impersonating Officer" case in the Southern Command, where Assaf Shmuelevitz was accused of a series of serious security offenses.
Shmuelevitz, who admitted to all the charges against him in the indictment, claimed that he was not responsible for his actions at the time the offenses were committed. As part of the plea agreement, he will serve his sentence in a psychiatric hospital, not in prison.
The case erupted during the war in Gaza, when Shmuelvitz, who was not called up for reserve duty, decided to join the IDF's operations on his own. He impersonated a captain and arrived at the combat zone while wearing military uniform. Simultaneously, he took advantage of the chaos at the Southern Command headquarters and gained access to classified information, which he then exposed without authorization.
In the indictment filed in January 2024, it was alleged that Shmuelevitz not only accessed the most sensitive information but also documented it and shared it with unauthorized civilian and military personnel. The charges against him include serious espionage, disclosing information, entering a restricted area, and obtaining goods by fraud under aggravating circumstances.