BICOM

Former Israeli energy minister Gonen Segev has been arrested and charged with spying for Iran, the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, revealed on Monday.

Segev, who had been living in Nigeria in recent years, was formally charged on 15 June with aiding the enemy in wartime, committing espionage against Israel and relaying information to the enemy. He had been in custody for more than a month, having returned to Israel at the request of the Police in May after being detained by Equatorial Guinean officials.

Segev had been recruited in 2012 by Iran’s embassy in Nigeria, the Shin Bet said. He is alleged to have provided Iran with information about Israel’s energy infrastructure and security installations, as well as other sensitive information.

The former doctor and officer in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had moved to Nigeria after serving two years of a five-year sentence in prison in Israel for drug smuggling, forgery and fraud. He attempted to bring 32,000 Ecstasy pills into Israel from the Netherlands and claimed he thought they were M&Ms. He was released from prison in 2007.

The Shin Bet said: “Segev also met with his Iranian handlers in various hotels and apartments around the world which he assumed were used for covert activity. Segev even received secret communications equipment for encoding messages between him and his handlers… Segev had subsequently twice visited Iran to meet with his handlers in full knowledge that they were Iranian intelligence operatives.”

“In order to perform the missions that he had been assigned by his handlers, Segev maintained contacts with Israeli citizens in the foreign affairs and security fields. Segev worked to put some of these Israeli citizens in contact with Iranian intelligence agents by misleading the former and presenting the latter as innocent Iranian businessmen,” they added.

Segev served in the Knesset from 1992-1996 in the Tzomet and Yi-ud political parties. He served as Minister of Energy and Infrastructure under Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, from 1995-1996.

In recent years, he was reportedly practicing medicine in Nigeria without a medical license, treating Israeli staffers at the embassy in Nigeria as well as members of the local Jewish community.