Case of Colonel Atef Zahar

Case of Colonel Atef Zahar

(AKA: Col. Atef Zahar)

Former Colonel - Israeli Defense Force (IDF), Tel Aviv, Israel

Convicted of indecent sexual acts and illegal intercourse, and was acquitted of the crime of rape. He was sentenced to six years in prison for the rapes.

The court ruled that on many occasions Zaher took soldier M., his 18-year-old secretary (who was his direct subordinate) into various places, undressed her and himself, and penetrated her body while cursing, humiliating and insulting her. On a number of other occasions he undressed her and himself, held her by force and committed sexual acts on himself until he achieved climax, demanding that she watch him and cursing her when she refused to accede.

There are several people who go by the name of Atef Zahar. The individual discussed on this page was a former Colonel in the Israel Defense Force.

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Table of Contents:  

2005

1. IDF colonel on trail for raping soldier says she initiated intimate contact (06/15/2005)
2. What could the soldier-girl have done? (09/12/2005)
3. IDF court imprisons, demotes colonel over sexual abuse (09/20/2005)
4. Col. Zaher gets eight months in prison (09/20/2005)

2006

1. Top IDF officer gets 6 years for rape (09/29/2006)

2007

1. Court rejects appeal by officer convicted of rape (08/08/2007)
2. Former colonel begins six year sentence for rape (07/25/2007)

2012

1. IDF colonel who raped female soldier to be released 9 months early  (10/24/2012)

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IDF colonel on trail for raping soldier says she initiated intimate contact
By Zvi Harel and Yuval Yoaz
Haaretz - June 15, 2005

IDF Col. Atef Zaher, on trial for allegations that he raped a woman soldier under his command, confirmed Wednesday that he and the soldier had touched each other in "intimate regions."

Zaher said that this occurred during the soldier's reserve duty, when they were in his car. He added that he stopped the car, and that the touching was reciprocal, mainly initiated by the female soldier.

Zaher also said that he had kissed her on the mouth and caressed her at a party held on her release from the army. According to Zaher, this contact was also initiated by the female soldier. He added that on this occasion, he got carried away. Despite this, he strongly denied charges that he raped her.

In response to a question posed by attorney Avigdor Feldman, Zaher said, "All that the woman soldier said is beyond imagination. We never had any sort of sexual relations."

Also Wednesday, Zaher said he believed he had been framed by Bedouin soldiers who bore a grudge against him.

The indictment, filed in January, details at least 14 instances of rape and a number of additional incidents in which Zaher attacked the female soldier, but did not force her to have full sexual relations.

The indictment also includes charges of various incidents in which Zaher stroked the thighs of the female soldier and another soldier from the unit.

According to the indictment, on one occasion, after being unable to undress the female soldier in his office, Zaher took his clothes off and masturbated in front of the soldier. Zaher was released to house arrest after the trial began.

In the year and a half prior to his arrest, Zaher, a resident of the village of Isfiya, served as head of the minorities unit in the General Staff's Human Resources department. Serving in this capacity, he was responsible for ties with Druze, Bedouin, Muslim, and Christian Arab soldiers and new recruits. Prior to that, he headed the Human Resources Planning Department in the Human Resources Reserve unit.

Zaher served in the Human Resources branch for the duration of his military service.

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What could the soldier-girl have done?

By Rina Bar-Tal

Haaretz - September 12, 2005 Elul 8, 5765

Last Monday, Colonel Atef Zaher was found guilty of indecent sexual acts and illegal intercourse, and was acquitted of the crime of rape. Zaher's defense attorney, Avigdor Feldman, said in a radio interview that had the story not gone out to the media, the defendant would have emerged without anything. There is no doubt that the media play an important role in leading social changes in Israel, but it is a long way from that to the conviction of Zaher for criminal acts.

Zaher's conviction will be credited to the courageous female soldier who complained (despite her introverted personality, as evidenced during the handing down of the verdict), testified, and decided to go through the process for the sake of her own justice and that of all women. In Zaher's conviction the court showed that it believed the plaintiff's testimony and determined that it was very reliable. However, the court negated the defendant's testimony and called it false and groundless. Because of his false testimony and the reliability of the plaintiff's, the military court convicted Colonel Zaher.

The court ruled that on many occasions Zaher took soldier M., his 18-year-old secretary (who was his direct subordinate) into various places, undressed her and himself, and penetrated her body while cursing, humiliating and insulting her. On a number of other occasions he undressed her and himself, held her by force and committed sexual acts on himself until he achieved climax, demanding that she watch him and cursing her when she refused to accede.

The court's decision is an enigma. In its ruling the court noted that the defendant had penetrated the plaintiff's body on many occasions, despite his statement, even after the verdict, that there had been no sexual relations between him and the plaintiff. The court further noted that the sexual relations with the defendant were abhorrent to the plaintiff and she had been sexually used by him because she had no alternative, because of the defendant's status and the fear he inspired in her.

And still there was no conviction of rape in Zaher's case. Why? Because according to the court, the plaintiff did not convince them that she resisted sufficiently to the acts attributed to the defendant. No torn items of clothing or other evidence of a physical struggle where found. However, this demand for physical resistance on the part of the plaintiff had already been eliminated by law in 2001 and is not required as proof of the crime of rape. And what could a soldier-girl of 18 have done? What resistance could she have manifested against the aggression of her direct superior, with the rank of colonel?

Examination of the extent of the plaintiff's resistance rather than the examination of the disgraceful and humiliating conduct of the defendant, and the granting of all the "weight" to the extent of the resistance, are no less puzzling. Such demands prevent many women from complaining in similar instances, on the grounds that they undergo another rape in the trial process.

MK Eti Livni (Shinui) has proposed legislation that would prohibit forced sex. The law was prepared and formulated by attorney Dr. Orit Kamir of the Israel Women's Network, the Association of Victims of Sexual Assault and the Israeli Center for Human Dignity. Under the proposal, a person who penetrates another person's body must ascertain in advance that the person is interested in this, and anyone who does not ascertain this and does not receive agreement is considered to not have received agreement and cannot defend himself later with the claim that he did not understand when the person who complains did not resist.

The meaning of this is that were this law already on the books, Zaher, who did not ask the plaintiff for her agreement, could not have argued later that "he did not know" that she didn't object to his actions - and would without a doubt have been convicted of rape.

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IDF court imprisons, demotes colonel over sexual abuse

By Zvi Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

Haaretz - Sep. 20, 2005

A court martial on Tuesday sentenced Israel Defense Forces Colonel Atef Zaher to eight months for statutory rape and committing indecent sexual acts on a female soldier who served under his command. The court also demoted Zaher to the rank of a major and gave an additional suspended sentence of ten months' imprisonment.

Two weeks ago the court acquitted Zaher of rape charges.

The presiding judge Amnon Streshnov wrote in his verdict "the crimes were a systematic sexual abuse."

Outside the court Zaher gave an announcement to the press in which he insisted the allegations against him were false: "Never in my life did I hurt another human being," he said.

Relating to the treatment he received from the court, the convicted colonel said the he was warned that as soon as his name will be made public, dozens of other girls would file complaints against him. "Where are they?" he pondered.

"I object (to the verdict) and I am confident that in the end justice will come to light," the colonel stressed.

When asked what were his conclusions from the affair, Zaher said, "You must not believe every story a girl tells you. Those girls who they tell you are twenty years old are not innocent. There was something behind this," Zaher said, hinting that his conviction was a setup, but did not elaborate any more on the subject.

Zaher, 45, denied having had sexual relations with the complainant, though he testified that they had engaged on occasion in "touching intimate body parts" above clothing, and on two occasions hugged and kissed on the lips.

The affair was exposed by Israel Radio military reporter Carmela Menashe after a friend of the complainant's had contacted her.

Zahar served as commander of a small section in the personnel department of the IDF's General Staff. The complainant finished her military service in that section in February 2004, and Israel Radio exposed her complaints in December 2004.

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Col. Zaher gets eight months in prison

By JPOST.COM STAFF

Jerusalem Post - Sep. 20, 2005

The Special Military Court in the Kirya (IDF headquarters) sentenced Col. Atef Zaher on Tuesday to eight months in prison and a 10-month suspended sentence.

The court also ruled that Zaher be demoted to the rank of major, two ranks below colonel, Army Radio reported.

In response to the sentence, Zaher said, "I will fight until my very last day. I am innocent – I did nothing. I am disappointed with the country I live in."

Two weeks ago Zaher was convicted on several counts of statutory rape against three female soldiers who had served under his command. The court, however, cleared Zaher of all rape and indecent acts charges.

The case has been dubbed the worst sexual assault case in the history of the IDF. It included the most severe charges ever brought against an IDF colonel.

The maximum punishment for each count of statutory rape is three years in prison.

Zaher was arrested by the Military Police in January following a covert investigation carried out after "M," a 20-year-old woman soldier, told Israel Radio that he had raped her several times over several months when she had served under his command.

The woman had taken a polygraph test and, according to media reports, had been found to be telling the truth.

Zaher vociferously denied all charges, claiming his relationship with "M" was based on love. "You are speaking of rape? I see it as love because she loved me," Zaher told the radio in February. "I did not have any sexual contact with her."

The officer's wife, Samia, has been backing her husband since the affair was revealed. "Anyone could do plenty in order to be promoted, including step all over my husband. But me and my husband will not allow that to happen," she said.

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Top IDF officer gets 6 years for rape

Jerusalem Post - September 29, 2006

The Military Appeals Court at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv sentenced Col. Atef Zahar to six years in prison Friday for rapin a female soldier who had served under his command. The court also ordered that Zaher be demoted to private and pay the victim NIS 35,000 in compensation, and rejected his request to submit an appeal to the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, Zahar's lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, announced that Atef intended to appeal to the Supreme Court. The judges, headed by court president Maj.-Gen. Yishai Bar, said Atef had "roughly trampled the complainant's body, turned her into a sex object, darkly used her innocence to satisfy his sexual urges." Zaher was accused last year of raping a 20-year-old woman identified as "M," and of sexually harassing other female soldiers between January 2003 and August 2004. In September 2005, he was convicted on five counts of illegal sexual intercourse, four counts of indecent behavior, attempted indecent behavior and conduct unbecoming an officer. Eight months earlier, Zaher was charged on 10 counts of rape as well as several related charges. However, he was acquitted of the rape charges at the September 2005 hearing after the court said prosecutors failed to prove the acts took place against the female soldier's will. 

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Court rejects appeal by officer convicted of rape

Jerusalem Post - April 30, 2007

The Supreme Court rejected Monday an appeal filed by Col. Atef Zaher who was convicted of raping a female soldier under his command. Zaher was sentenced to six years in prison and demoted to the rank of private. In 2005, Zaher, 47, was charged with illegal sexual intercourse, indecent behavior, sexual harassment, and unbecoming behavior and sentenced to eight months in a military prison, a suspended 10-month sentence over a three-year period, and demoted to the rank of major. It was the first time a senior-ranking IDF officer was convicted in such a major case of sexual assault in the army.

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Former colonel begins six year sentence for rape

Jerusalem Post - July 25, 2007

Private Atef Zahar, formerly Col. Zahar, will begin serving his six years prison sentence for raping a female soldier who had served under his command in the IDF on Wednesday morning, Israel Radio reported. In September 2005, Zahar was convicted on 10 counts of rape, five counts of indecent behavior and conduct unbecoming an officer. 

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IDF colonel who raped female soldier to be released 9 months early

Ataf Zahar spent just over five years behind bars, never expressed remorse.

By Gili Cohen

Haaretz - October 24, 2012

Colonel Ataf Zahar, who was convicted of raping a female soldier under his command, is scheduled to be released from prison on Wednesday, nine months before his sentence was due to end.

The military prosecution objected to his release, noting that Zahar never expressed remorse for his actions and never apologized to the victim, who was a clerk under his command.

Attorney Liat Klein, the legal adviser for the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, said that "every decision regarding an early release has repercussions and significance for the victim. Unfortunately, the parole boards tend to focus their attention on the convict's situation, rather than examine the ramifications for the victim, the interest of society and the message to other sex criminals."

Zahar was convicted in 2006 by a military court at the Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv of five counts of rape and indecent acts. He was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay his victim NIS 35,000 in compensation. He was also demoted to the lowest rank of private.

Zahar, who headed the Israel Defense Forces' special populations authority, appealed the decision in 2007. His appeal was rejected.

But last week, the military parole board decided to commute his sentence by nine months.

Zahar has appeared three times before the parole board, which is composed of representatives of the military courts unit, the IDF's General Staff and the Defense Ministry. In his previous appeal, the parole board agreed to shorten his sentence by 18 months, but the Association of Rape Crisis Centers and the military prosecution petitioned the High Court of Justice to reverse the decision. The justices who dealt with the petition ruled that the military parole board had failed to weigh Zahar's desire for freedom against his victim's desire to rehabilitate her life.

The wording of the judges' verdict when Zahar was convicted in 2006 was particularly harsh. "The rapist's blow is so evil that it causes turmoil in the victim's most intimate spaces," it read.

"He boorishly, continuously and systematically trampled on the complainant's honor," the military judges wrote. "He harmed her soul and her body while humiliating and debasing her. Answering his urges was all that interested him, and he showed not a drop of compassion or mercy for the complainant."

Throughout his trial and incarceration, Zahar denied the charges and claimed that his only mistake was in holding a "forbidden romance." As such, he refused rehabilitation.

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