Former Israeli minister to get 11 years sentence after 'spying for Iran'

A former Israeli minister will be jailed for 11 years, the justice ministry said Wednesday, after being charged with spying for arch-foe Iran.

Gonen Segev will plead guilty to serious espionage and transfer of information to the enemy as part of a plea agreement, the ministry said in a statement. 

A sentencing hearing was set for 11 February for Segev, who served as energy and infrastructure minister from 1995 to 1996, opened in July but was held behind closed doors, with few details of the accusations publicly released.

Segev served under Labor Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after defecting from the far-right to cast the decisive vote in favour of the Oslo II peace agreement with the Palestinians.

He has previously served prison time on criminal charges.

In 2004, he was charged with trying to smuggle 30,000 ecstasy pills into Israel from the Netherlands using a diplomatic passport with a falsified expiry date.

The following year, he admitted the charges as part of a plea bargain, as well an attempted credit card fraud conviction.