Mahoul, district prosecutors sign plea bargain

Arab political activist admits to aiding an enemy and espionage; court to decide on punishment between 7 to 10 years in prison.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, DAN IZENBERG, YAAKOV LAP
Amir Makhoul 311 (photo credit: Courtesy of the Ittijah website)
Amir Makhoul 311
(photo credit: Courtesy of the Ittijah website)
Haifa district prosecutors and lawyers for Amir Mahoul, charged with spying for Hizbullah, signed a plea bargain Wednesday after negotiations were held between both sides. The plea bargain is subject to the approval of the Haifa District Court.RELATED:Israeli Arab charged with spying‘Charges against Mahoul part of slander campaign’Lawyer: 'Hizbullah spy' only questioned on his politics
Mahoul's lawyer, Hussein Abu Hussein, said his client
admitted to, and was charged with, contact with a foreign agent, aiding an enemy in war, and espionage - all stemming from his activities and contact with Hizbullah.
The prosecution will request to impose on Mahoul a punishment of 10 years in prison, while the defense will try to lower the sentence to seven years, with probation to be determined by the discretion of the court.
Mahoul was charged in May of this year with espionage, assisting an enemy in time of war and maintaining contact with an enemy agent.
The state's indictment charged that Mahoul sent 10 messages to his Hizbullah contacts that included information on the location of the Shin Bet offices in Jalama and Haifa, with their exact addresses, and the locations of the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. plant on the Acre-Haifa highway, Mossad facilities in the center of the country and the Nahshonim military base, which the indictment describes as an American base, and the home address of Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin.
According to a senior security official, Mahoul was also asked by Hizbullah to collect information on the security arrangements surrounding the convoys of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. He did not succeed in this mission, the security official said.
Mahoul is an author and head of Ittijah – The Union of Arab Community-Based Associations, also based in Haifa.