Gonen Segev maintained that he had been trying to act as a double agent in order to return to Israel as a hero.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Jerusalem District Court sentenced former Energy and Infrastructure Minister Gonen Segev on Tuesday to serve an 11-year sentence for espionage on behalf of Iran.

The 63-year-old had agreed to a plea bargain in January wherein the most serious charge of treason by aiding an enemy during a time of war was dropped in exchange for his full confession.

At the time, his defense team claimed that although Segev had contact with Iranian officials, he had no intention of aiding them.

However, according to a statement made by state prosecutors Geula Cohen and Rachel Aharoni Zeevi, “Segev confessed that he acted on behalf of the Iranian intelligence forces for five years, maintained regular communications with his handlers using a clandestine channel, and provided them a diverse range of information, including top-secret information.”

Segev, whose activities began in 2012, is said to have passed on to his Iranian handlers information related to the energy sector, security sites in Israel and officials in political and security institutions. He also tried luring Israelis in the defense establishment to meet with agents posing as businessmen or other innocent professions, the prosecution said.

An 11-year sentence may seem light for spying for a country aimed at Israel’s destruction. The prosecutors pointed out that the plea bargain allows the state to avoid a long trial that could reveal intelligence sources and methods.

Although Segev admitted all that he had done, he maintained that his motives were pure.

“I wanted to fool the Iranians and come back to Israel a hero,” he was quoted by Channel 10 as saying during his interrogation last year.

The former cabinet minister had also spent time in an Israeli prison for attempting to smuggle some 30,000 Ecstasy pills into the country by using an expired diplomatic passport in 2004. His Israeli medical license was revoked, but he then worked as a physician in Nigeria, where he moved permanently after his release in 2007, even treating members of Israel’s diplomatic staff there.

The fact that a person who once served in a high government position was indicted for serving Iran, considered Israel’s most serious strategic enemy, shocked the country.

Further details are unknown, as the court issued a gag order on the case.

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Gonen Segev admits that he spied for Iran, a country whose leadership has vowed to destroy Israel.

By David Jablinowitz, World Israel News

A former Israeli cabinet minister has confessed that he spied for Iran, and as a part of a plea bargain will serve 11 years in jail. The Jerusalem District Court was notified Wednesday of the deal worked out between the defense and prosecution.

The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office said that a sentencing hearing for Segev will be held on February 11.

“The plea bargain reflects the true proportion of this case,” said the defense team in a statement, arguing that it is “clear that Segev indeed had contacts with Iranians, but not to aid them. That is why the treason charge was removed from the amended indictment.”

The charge of assisting the enemy in wartime, listed in the original indictment, was removed as part of the agreement, and Segev confessed to reduced security-related offenses. According to the new, reduced indictment, Segev allegedly met with Iranian intelligence officials repeatedly over the past six years, including twice in Tehran, having traveled to Iran on a non-Israeli passport.

He had been indicted on charges that included providing Tehran with information on Israel’s energy industry, security sites, various facilities, and political and military officials. The 63-year-old Segev served as Israel’s energy and infrastructure minister during 1995 and 1996 under Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.

He had been living in Nigeria in recent years working as a physician, but when he tried to enter Equatorial Guinea in May 2018, he was refused entry because of his criminal past and instead transferred to Israel.

He was arrested and questioned by the Shin Bet and Israel Police after intelligence gathered on him raised the suspicion that he had been in contact with Iranian intelligence and was assisting them in their activities against Israel.

The investigation found that Segev was recruited and operated as an agent of the Iranian intelligence. He was first contacted by Iranian embassy officials in Nigeria in 2012, and at a later stage traveled to Iran twice for meetings with his handlers, knowing full well that they belonged to Iranian intelligence.

Segev did not deny the allegations leveled against him during his investigation but claimed that he had attempted to help Israel through the information that he was receiving. He said that he was trying to act as a double agent against Iran and hoped to return home as a hero.

In 2002, Israel’s security services uncovered a Hezbollah plot to kidnap Israeli citizens, including Segev, to Lebanon to be used as bargaining chips for negotiations on prisoner swaps.

His criminal career has also included convictions for attempted drug smuggling and credit card fraud.

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“Awhile ago, you heard that we had (recruited) a member of the cabinet of a hostile country,” Alavi said.

By: Yona Schnitzer/TPS

Iran recruited a cabinet member of “hostile government” as an agent, Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said, Iranian media reported Tuesday.

“Thank God, the Intelligence Ministry’s Anti-Espionage Unit is one of the strongest units of the ministry and one of the strongest in intelligence services in the world,” Alavi told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) on Tuesday night.

“A while ago, you heard that we had (recruited) a member of the cabinet of a hostile country.”

While Alavi did not specifically state which country, Iranian media outlets are speculating that he was referring to Israel and noted that his comments came four months after the arrest of former Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Gonen Segev, who is currently facing charges of acting as an Iranian agent.

In June, the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) announced it had arrested Segev a month earlier and that the former minister was being charged with aiding the enemy in time of war and espionage against the state of Israel.

The Shin Bet said its investigation revealed that Segev was recruited by Iranian intelligence which had contacted him via the Iranian embassy in Nigeria. Segev reportedly traveled to Iran to meet with his handlers and, according to the statement, also met with them in safe houses and hotels at unspecified locations where he received encryption equipment to communicate with the Iranian agents.

Segev gave his handlers information pertaining to Israel’s energy sector and security installations as well as diplomatic and security officials.

The Shin Bet said Segev had tried to dupe Israelis with connections to fields of interest to the Iranians into meeting with intelligence agents whom he presented as businessmen. All further details pertaining to the case have been placed under gag order.

He was extradited to Israel in May from Equatorial Guinea after the central African country refused to let him in due to his criminal past.

The former pediatrician and member of the Tzomet Party during the 1990s served a five-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2005 of attempting to smuggle thousands of ecstasy tablets into Israel.

The trial on his espionage charges commenced in July. Prosecutor Geula Cohen of the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office stated that “this is a serious affair, when a former minister spies for an enemy state, a country at the top of the list of enemies, it is hard to ignore the severity of the acts.”

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The court permitted the publication of details from an indictment against a former Israeli minister accused of spying for Iran, according to details from the indictment. 

By: World Israel News Staff  

In response to a freedom of information request by Walla News, the Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday released information from the censored indictment filed against former Energy Minister Gonen Segev.

Segev was arrested in May on charges of spying for Iran.

According to the newly revealed details, Segev was charged with providing information to the enemy, in this case the Iranians.

The indictment charges Segev with providing classified information to the Iranians with the express intent of hurting Israel. This classified information purportedly included the locations of installations of a sensitive nature.

Segev was privy to the classified information, according to the indictment, during his stint as energy and infrastructure minister.

He met with his operators in “safe” apartments over six consecutive years in different countries.

Large portions of the indictment remain classified.

Segev’s trial will begin in the Jerusalem District Court Thursday.

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Former minister of energy and infrastructure Gonen Segev was arrested last month by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and indicted on charges of aiding the enemy in time of war and espionage against the State of Israel. What are the consequences? Should he be convicted? Former Mossad operative Gad Shimron explains.

The post WATCH: What did Israeli spy Segev give to the Iranians? appeared first on World Israel News.

Iranians loyal to the mullahs applauded Former Minister Segev, charged with spying for the Islamic Republic, while regime opponents denounced him as a traitor. 

By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The hashtag #FreeGonenSegev has been tweeted around 4,500 times in Iran since news broke Monday about the former Israeli minister of energy and infrastructure’s indictment for espionage in the pay of the Islamic republic, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Naturally, many of the social media campaigners supported Segev for working for their country, with one asking the international community to “intervene” on his behalf and another boasting that this achievement will help “bring down Israel from within.”

Others mocked Israel, as one @Moheqqq wrote: “Hey @netanyahu. Let’s play a game. 1 in 5 israel ministers is an Iran agent. Try and find them. Good luck! You have 48 hours. And to show you we are serious. You have 24 hours.”

However, anti-regime activists seemed just as angry as Israeli citizens upon hearing the news that the Shin Bet had arrested the highest-ranking Jew ever to be accused of assisting the enemy in a time of war, spying against the State of Israel and providing intelligence to the enemy.

“Those who serve the Ayatollahs deserve death, just as they execute those accused of spying in Iran,” said one tweet.

In related news, Channel 10 reported Tuesday that Segev admitted to the Shin Bet that he had contact with the Iranians, but not in order to work against his country.

“I wanted to fool the Iranians and come back to Israel a hero,” the report quoted him as saying during his interrogation.

He also denied having given his handlers any classified information.

Considering that he was a minister for less than two years over 20 years ago, it would seem logical that any secret intelligence he might have known at the time would have been outdated by the time the Iranians allegedly first recruited him in Nigeria in 2012.

Still, he could have given Israel’s sworn enemy useful information regarding Israel’s energy sector and the way the government and security services work in general as well as personal information about officials still employed in relevant positions. As there is a gag order on most of the case, however, the exact suspicions against Segev are not yet known.

The only other Knesset member to have been accused of spying for an enemy was Azmi Bishara, the founder of the Arab Balad party who fled Israel in 2007 after reports surfaced that he had spied for the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organization, Hezbollah, during the Second Lebanon War the year before. Bishara now lives in Qatar and is close to the ruling family of the state, according to AFP.

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Gonen Segev, a former government minister and medical doctor who served time for smuggling drugs into Israel, is now charged with spying for Iran.

By: TPS

Former Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Gonen Segev was arrested last month by the Israel Security Agency and indicted on charges of aiding the enemy in time of war and espionage against the State of Israel, the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) revealed Monday.

Segev was extradited to Israel in May from Equatorial Guinea after the central African country refused to let him in due to his criminal past: The former pediatrician and member of the now defunct Tzomet Party during the 1990s, served a five-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2004 of attempting to smuggle thousands of ecstacy tablets into Israel.

Upon landing in Israel, Segev was arrested by the Shin Bet and Israel Police on suspicion that he had been in touch with Iranian intelligence agents.

The Shin Bet said its investigation revealed that Segev had been recruited by Iranian intelligence, which had contacted him via the Iranian embassy in Nigeria. In 2016, Segev filed a request to have his Israeli medical license reinstated in order to be able to return to Israel. His attorney, Yoram Pomerantz, told Army Radio at the time that Segev had been working as a doctor in Nigeria.

Segev reportedly even travelled to Iran to meet with his handlers and, according to the statement, met with them in safe houses and hotels at unspecified locations, where he received encryption equipment to communicate with the Iranian agents.

Segev gave his handlers information pertaining to Israel’s energy sector and security installations as well as diplomatic and security officials, the Shin Bet said.

According to the statement, Segev tried to fool Israelis with connections to fields of interest to the Iranians into meeting with intelligence agents whom he presented as businessmen. All further details pertaining to the case have been placed under gag order.

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