IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi commented for the first time Sunday on the mystery surrounding the death of a jailed intelligence officer, saying, "He was one of my soldiers. The offenses he committed were very serious and he committed them intently and knowingly, for motives I cannot explain.
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"This case is not like 'Prisoner X'. He was never hidden away, he had regular contact with his family and with others. Everything we did was done with the hope of protecting the family's privacy, as well as the integrity of the highly sensitive secret he nearly compromised. We stopped him at the last minute," Kochavi said.
He noted that the IDF "must investigate the fact that he died in prison. That shouldn't have happened. We will get to the truth and we will learn from this case."
The officer's family said in a statement, "While we respect the chief of staff, the fact is that the IDF failed in its most basic mission – protecting human life in a supervised military facility. We demand a full, transparent investigation into this failure."
