Former Minister Gonen Segev Suspected Of Drug
Smuggling By Roni Singer Haaretz
Correspondent 4-22-4
- Former energy minister Gonen Segev was remanded in
custody at the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Thursday for seven days on
suspicion he attempted to smuggle 25,000 Ecstasy pills into the country
from the Netherlands.
-
- Segev, a pediatrician by profession, served as a
minister in Yitzhak Rabin's government in the mid-1990s.
-
- A sweeping gag order placed on the case two weeks ago
was partially lifted on Thursday morning.
-
- The former minister is also suspected of using a
forged diplomatic passport. Israel Radio reported that Segev's
diplomatic passport had expired, but the date had allegedly been
altered.
-
- Two other men, identified as Ariel Friedman and Moshe
Verner, have also been arrested as suspects in the case and were also
remanded in custody on Thursday.
-
- Judge David Rosen wrote in Thursday's ruling that
"this does not seem to be an isolated incident. Investigators believe
that the suspects are part of, those not necessary the central figures
in, a drugs-smuggling ring ... The suspect Segev apparently tried to
smuggle the drugs caught by using a forged diplomatic passport. I have
looked into the allegations and found that there are grounds to them. It
is almost possible to say that these are not [merely] allegations, but
apparently substantial evidence."
-
- Segev, who was placed under arrest on Wednesday night,
denies all allegations against him.
-
- The Tel Aviv Central Police District received
information some two weeks ago of a shipment of Ecstasy pills meant to
arrive in Israel from the Netherlands. Police also learned that Segev
was allegedly meant to pick up the drugs in the Netherlands and bring
them to Israel.
-
- Segev, however, claims that he was in the Netherlands
for business, where he met a friend, an Israeli lawyer, who gave him a
package his cousin had asked to take to Israel. Segev says that he was
told the 5-kilogram package contained M&M chocolates.
-
- The former minister claims further that he stored the
package in a locker at Schiphol Airport before he boarded the Tel
Aviv-bound flight because he feared the package did not really contain
chocolates.
-
- He reported the matter to Dutch police and to Israeli
police when he landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport.
-
- Police called him in for questioning on Wednesday
night, when he was arrested.
-
- Israeli media and Segev's attorney Lior Epstein have
tried for the last week to have the gag order lifted. Epstein claims
that his client is innocent and has no link to the crime and thus wants
to see the truth come to
light.
|
The Mulindwas Communication Group "With
Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans
l'anarchie"
|