Gonan Segev: Former Israeli minister who spied for Iran gets 11 years in jail
A former Israeli government minister will spend 11 years in prison after admitting to spying for Iran.
Gonan Segev confessed to charges of severe espionage and passing information to an enemy.
Segev served as energy minister under former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in the mid-1990s and was previously jailed for trying to smuggle ecstasy tablets into the country.
He was extradited from Equatorial Guinea and arrested in Israel last May on suspicion of acting as an agent for Iranian intelligence and relaying information about the "energy market and security sites in Israel".
Shin Bet, Israel's security service, initially said Segev had met with his operators twice in Iran and with Iranian agents in hotels and apartments around the world.
A gagging order has been issued on most of the details, but Israel's justice ministry said an 11-year sentence had been agreed as part of a plea bargain.
Israel considers Iran its biggest threat, citing Iranian calls for Israel's destruction, its support for groups like Hezbollah and the development of long-range missiles.
Israel has carried out a number of airstrikes on Iranian forces in Syria recently.
In August, Iran's intelligence minister bragged on state television about recruiting a former cabinet-level official from a "hostile" country but did not mention Israel or Segev.
Segev's lawyers said they could not discuss all the details of the case, but included in his plea deal was a removal of the charge of treason.
They added: "Indeed, Mr Segev did have contact with the Iranians but his motive was not to 'aid an enemy during war'."
Segev had been arrested in 2004 for attempting to smuggle 32,000 ecstasy tablets from the Netherlands to Israel using an expired diplomatic passport.
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