Gonen Segev: former Israeli cabinet minister ‘spied for Iran’

A former Israeli cabinet minister has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran, according to Israel’s Shin Bet security agency.

Gonen Segev, 62, who served as energy and infrastructure minister in the 1990s, was “recruited and acted as an agent on behalf of Iranian intelligence”, Shin Bet says.

The agency alleges that Segev gave information “connected to the energy market and security sites in Israel including buildings and officials in political and security organisations”.

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Segev has denied he was working out of “ideological or financial motivation”, reports The Times of Israel, and claimed he was “instead trying to act as a double-agent and spy on the Iranians”.

He was reportedly arrested while attempting to travel to Equatorial Guinea in May, and has been in custody since.

Segev, who is also a doctor, was charged in 2004 with “trying to smuggle 30,000 ecstasy tablets into Israel from the Netherlands, using a diplomatic passport with a falsified expiry date”, Al Jazeera reports.

He was released from prison in 2007, before moving to west Africa.