Mahoul espionage charge may be dropped in deal

Proposed deal would drop most serious charge for guilty plea in others; Amir Mahoul was arrested and charged with spying for Hizbullah in May.

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, were discussing a possible plea bargain by which certain charges will be dropped, while others will be admitted to by the suspect.
The proposed deal would drop the most serious charge of espionage against Mahoul, but he would plead guilty to other unspecified charges. If the deal is finalized, Mahoul is expected to serve up to 10 years in prison, Israel Radio reported.
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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.