Shock waves continued to reverberate through the military and civilian establishments Tuesday as authorities searched for Israelis suspected of complicity in the illegal draft-dodging operation uncovered Monday.
Border police at all airports and seaports were notified of hundreds of names of people suspected of paying bribes, reportedly ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, to get out of army service. The military and civilian police intend to round these people up and press charges against them.
Police on Monday arrested 16 civilians and army officers, some of them holding high rank in the Israel Defense Force, in connection with the bribery ring.
The Petach Tikva Magistrates Court on Tuesday ordered the 16 held without bail. They are accused of accepting bribes and services in return for certificates exempting the bribe-payers from reserve or regular army service, both of which are mandatory in Israel.
The newspaper Haaretz said Tuesday that the number of those arrested is actually far higher than has been reported, and that at the present time there are more than 200 people involved.
Among those suspected of affiliation with the network are well-known doctors working in high-ranking positions at hospitals around the country, business owners who previously had no police record and very high-ranking army officers, including reserve officers.
These individuals have not yet been arrested, but the investigators have acquired an extensive amount of information and evidence concerning the working of the network.
THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS EARNED
According to Haaretz, many involved with the network earned tens of thousands of dollars last year as a result of their association with the scheme.
Police seized many documents from suspects’ homes and offices Monday and, in some cases, uncovered large sums of foreign currency.
The newspaper Davar on Tuesday quoted Police Deputy Commander Shimon Savir as saying that undercover agents were used. The agents paid suspects in exchange for receiving exemptions from the army.
The methods used to obtain exemptions consisted of either providing falsified medical documents or illegal use of the army computer.
A doctor who was detained Monday is suspected of placing the X-ray of a sick patient into the military file of a healthy person who paid money in order to be exempted from military service.
According to the newspaper Hadashot, among the suspects arrested Monday are Lt. Col. Nati Amitzur, from the IDF’s manpower branch, and Dr. Yossi Blatt, a Jerusalem orthopedist.
Hadashot reported that the scandal first surfaced when a military police unit succeeded in identifying a Petach Tikva businessman who served as a middleman in obtaining exemptions for individuals attempting to avoid military service.
Other instances of illegal evasion of army service have surfaced before in Israel, but on a much smaller scale, police said.
IDF sources stressed that there is no connection between a political movement to avoid army service in the administered territories and the bribery scheme to seek exemptions from all army service.
The sources pointed out that investigation of the bribery ring began well before the beginning of the Palestinian uprising last December.
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