Top security official says hard to prove Gonen Segev committed treason
Defense establishment sources support the former minister's claim that he updated a senior security official on his ties with the Iranian intelligence, say he will likely only be charged with contacting a foreign agent.
The sources told Yedioth Ahronoth it would likely be hard to prove that Segev had committed espionage and treason offenses. They added he would likely only be charged with contacting a foreign agent.
According to the sources, the extent of damage caused by the information Segev allegedly handed over to the Iranians would only become clear at the conclusion of the investigation. They noted that, in any event, the information he allegedly gave the Iranian was old and not up-to-date.
The sources noted, however, that the potential of damage and danger should not be downplayed. "It could have ended in a disaster, as Segev was a regular guest in events organized by the Jewish community in Nigeria and at the Israeli Embassy, and the Iranians could have used him for terror attacks and abductions," one of the sources said.
The source defined Segev as "a conflicted and delusional personality, a cheeky and shameless person who, while contacting the Iranians, approached Israel's health minister and asked for his doctor's license back so he could return to Israel."
A former Israeli ambassador to Nigeria described Segev as "a sick personality," saying that "we kept away from him as we would stay away from a fire." According to the former envoy, the embassy's only contact with Segev was in the medical field. He wasn't the embassy's official doctor, but the embassy workers often used his services as a physician.
Three years ago, as part of his work, Segev saved the life of the Israeli Embassy's security guard who had suffered from a serious stomach infection and lost consciousness. Segev resuscitated and evacuated him to Berlin on an air ambulance.
The former minister received a certificate of merit for his resourcefulness from the Foreign Ministry's security division, which he hung in his office in Abuja. The certificate was included in the letter he sent to the health minister to renew his medical license which had been revoked after he was convicted of attempted drug smuggling in 2007.
Segev, by the way, managed to obtain a German diplomatic passport from a woman he married, who had worked at the German Embassy. The two are still married, although Segev recently attended different events with a much younger woman. He used the German passport to visit Iran twice.
Segev had refused to return his Israeli diplomatic passport at the end of his term as minister, despite repeated requests from the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. It was later revealed that he had faked the passport's expiration date and kept flying with it around the world before being caught at the Amsterdam airport in April 2004 while trying to smuggle ecstasy into Israel.
