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Israeli soldiers stole laptops on flotilla, investigation finds
One soldier suspected of selling the computers was arrested on Tuesday together with three other soldiers who bought the stolen goods. Military police also arrested a second lieutenant suspected of stealing the computers from one of the ships, according to Israeli media reports.
The officer under suspicion commands a unit that had access to the ships after they were taken to the port of Ashdod, following their interception in international waters. Police say they think the second lieutenant stole four to six laptops from the ships.
The three soldiers who admitted to buying the laptops said they were told the laptops were stolen from the flotilla, but did not report the theft to their commanders. “Their part is smaller,” a source told Israel’s Ynet website.
The three soldiers will most likely also face trial because they did not report to their commanders that the laptop computers were stolen from the ships, interrogation revealed.
The aid ships were raided by Israeli commandos and nine activists, eight Turks and one Turkish-American, were killed by the commandos on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, causing an international outcry. Four different probes, one in Israel, one in Turkey and two at the UN, are under way at the moment to investigate the controversial raid. Turkey demands an apology from Israel while Israel says soldiers fired at activists to defend themselves.
Items were first reported missing by officials from the Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH), the Turkish charity that owned Mavi Marmara, last week during an inspection of the seized ships by Turkish authorities. Israel let the ships sail to Turkey earlier this month. Following an inspection of ships at Turkey’s İskenderun port, the İHH said some laptops, cameras and memory cards belonging to passengers or the İHH were missing. Passengers in June also complained that Israeli officers had used their seized credit cards.
Israeli investigators say they are in the process of identifying if the stolen laptop computers were in fact stolen from the flotilla vessels by the suspected officers.
But although the investigation is still under way, senior Israeli officers say it is very likely that the accusations will prove true. “The investigation has just begun, but as it appears now it will prove embarrassing and shameful,” one Israeli official told Ynet. “These are soldiers who don’t understand what their uniform represents,” the same official said, raising fears that the issue will harm already damaged image of Israel due to the controversial Israeli storm over the Mavi Marmara vessel.
Although Israel stated it sent the belongings of the detained Gaza flotilla activists out of the country on the same planes as the activists, passengers on board the ships earlier said Israel had seized most of their belongings, particularly cameras and memory cards that had footage and photos from the ships. Israel says they keep audio and video cassettes for security reasons.
Police confiscated the stolen goods. One investigator said once it is clear that the goods have been stolen from flotilla activists, they will be reimbursed.
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