- Former energy minister Gonen Segev admitted Sunday morning
to charges of attempting to smuggle some 32,000 ecstasy pills from the
Netherlands and forging his diplomatic passport.
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- Segev, who had long refuted the accusations, admitted
to the charges as part of a plea bargain under which he will get five years
imprisonment and a $27,500 fine which will be transferred to the Israel
Anto-Drug Authority.
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- Segev has been behind bars since his arrest in the Ben
Gurion International Airport in April 2004 over involvement in an alleged
international Ecstasy drug smuggling scheme that Israeli and Dutch police
said involved millions of shekels.
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- Segev and his two alleged accomplices, Moshe Verner and
Ariel Friedman, were charged in May 2004 with plotting to smuggle drugs.
Verner committed suicide by hanging himself in his prison cell last November.
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- Segev's attorneys tried to convince court that he was
unaware of the contents of the M&M candy packets he had received from
the Netherlands which he was supposed to import to Israel.
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- During his trial, Segev was also charged with attempting
to fraudulently receive NIS 20,387 and with credit card fraud, all under
aggravated circumstances.
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- Police expressed Sunday their satisfaction with the plea
bargain.
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- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/545547.html
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