A prominent Arab-Israeli human rights activist was sentenced to nine years in jail on Sunday after pleading guilty to spying for Lebanon's Hezbollah, ann Israeli court official said Ameer Makhoul was convicted last October of espionage and aggravated espionage on the basis of a plea bargain in which the prosecution dropped a charge of assisting the enemy in time of war.
He was sentenced on Sunday at Haifa district court, a spokesman said. According to court documents seen by AFP, Makhoul met Hassan Janna, a Lebanese-born recruiter for the Hezbollah militia, during a trip to Jordan in 2004.
The two remained in touch and in 2008, Makhoul agreed to help Hezbollah against Israel, it said. Later that year, the documents say, he met another Hezbollah agent in Copenhagen who installed a communications programme on Makhoul's laptop computer through which he could send messages to the organisation.
It said Makhoul subsequently filed reports on the location of installations of the Shin Bet and Mossad - Israel's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies - an army base and the Rafael military industries. Makhoul provided details on access and security arrangements at the Shin Bet headquarters in the northern port city of Haifa, it added.
Makhoul, whose brother Issa is a former Arab-Israeli lawmaker, heads Ittijah (the Union of Arab Community-Based Associations), a Haifa-based group that fights discrimination against Israeli-Arabs. He was arrested in early May, shortly after fellow Israeli-Arab activist Omar Saeed was detained over similar allegations.