Identity revealed of soldier who died in jail while facing security charges in 2021 |
The name of an Israeli military intelligence officer who died under mysterious circumstances in 2021 while in jail facing security charges was cleared for publication Saturday night, after the Israel Defense Forces’ Court of Appeals lifted a gag order on the case.
Senior Academic Officer (the equivalent of captain) Tomer Eiges, from Haifa, was jailed under accusations of grave security offenses.
He was found in serious condition in his cell in May 2021, on the eve of the Shavuot holiday, and was pronounced dead in the hospital a few hours later. He was 24 years old at the time of his death. There was no clear sign of the cause.
An autopsy in Israel, as well as a blood test at a specialized forensic laboratory in the United States, were inconclusive.
The entire case, including Eiges’s identity, was subjected to both military censorship and court-issued gag orders, despite the fact that the information — including his full name and picture — was widely available online since the incident.
Eiges spent nine months in military prison awaiting trial, while his attorneys and military prosecutors were negotiating a potential plea deal, cut short by his sudden death.
Though no official cause of death was determined according to the IDF, military officials indicated off the record that it appeared to be a suicide. His family has pushed back against this claim, however.
The prison where the officer had been held, Neve Tzedek, was newly opened and specifically designed........