JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli court sentenced a colonel to 15 years in prison for providing the Lebanese militia Hezbollah with sensitive information on military deployments along Israel's northern border. The military tribune also ordered Colonel Omar el-Heib's immediate expulsion from the army, a military source told AFP.Heib, a member of Israel's Bedouin minority, was last May found guilty of charges of aggravated espionage, contact with an enemy agent and trafficking drugs which he received in exchange for the information. He was nevertheless acquitted of charges of high treason.
Following his sentence, Heib said he intended to appeal the decision.
| "I'm innocent I tells yez! Pure as the driven snow!" |
Heib, who had been a commander in an elite scouting unit before being seriously wounded in an exchange of fire with Hezbollah along the border, went on to recruit Bedouin youths who can volunteer to serve in the army.