Ex-IDF legal chief arrested amid suspicions she faked suicide attempt to get rid of evidence on her phone

Former IDF Military Advocate General, Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was arrested late Sunday night at the end of a frantic search amid suspicions she was attempting suicide after being at the center of a massive judicial scandal rocking the Israeli military and judicial systems.

Tomer-Yerushalmi went missing earlier on Sunday as police tried to get in touch with her.

A large-scale search for her turned up her car abandoned at a Tel Aviv beach, before she was found in the water, soaking wet and without her phone.

Israeli media later reported that the police suspect this could have been a fake suicide attempt, including a staged suicide note, with the goal of getting rid of her phone and the incriminating evidence saved on it.

According to Channel 12, she even took another phone with her so that she could be located after tossing her other phone into the sea.

Yifat-Yerushalmi quit her post on Friday, after acknowledging that she had knowingly approved the leaking of a surveillance video purportedly showing several IDF soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee last year.

The scandal broke last week, after a member of the IDF’s Advocate General Corps stated during a routine lie-detector test that the video, which had caused a wave of anti-Israel sentiment, was leaked on purpose by Tomer-Yerushalmi.

Police then launched a criminal investigation into the leaking, suspecting her of leaking as well as lying to courts and the public in an attempt to cover it up.

In her resignation letter to IDF Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, Tomer-Yerushalmi wrote she leaked the video “to the media in an attempt to counter the false propaganda directed against the military law enforcement authorities.”

Despite the suspicions, she was only arrested after the apparently staged suicide attempt.

Police said Sunday night that Tomer-Yerushalmi and former chief military prosecutor Col. Matan Solomesh, who was also arrested, are suspected of “leaking and other serious criminal offenses.”

Army Radio reported that two additional senior officers from the Military Advocate General’s Office were questioned by police and are suspected of being involved in the leak or the cover-up.

The leaked video has already left a series of controversies and scandals in its wake.

After the suspected IDF soldiers were arrested by military police, riots broke out at the prisons where they were held, including Knesset Members storming the gates.

The video, which reportedly has been deceptively edited, was used online as evidence of IDF soldiers “raping” detainees, despite not showing any direct evidence of this.

In the footage, soldiers at the Sde Teiman facility are seen taking a prisoner aside, who had been lying on the floor, before surrounding him with riot shields. The alleged abuse that followed is not visible in the video. The detainee was later taken to the hospital with severe injuries.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, “The incident in Sde Teiman caused immense damage to the image of the State of Israel and the IDF, to our soldiers.”

“This is perhaps the most severe public relations attack that the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment. I do not recall one so focused with such intensity. This demands an independent, impartial investigation, and I expect such an investigation to be carried out.”