Arab 'spy' gets plea bargain, 7-month jail term
Court approves plea bargain, charges against Omar Said, accused of meeting Hezbollah operative in Egypt, amended to servicing illegal organization
The prosecution and Dr. Omar Said's attorneys agreed on a seven-month jail term for the Balad Party activist who was initially accused of several counts of contacting a foreign agent and divulging potentially harmful information to the enemy. T
The Nazareth District Court approved the plea bargain on Thursday.
According to the plea bargain, the charges would be amended to servicing an illegal organization.
Nazareth District Court justices David Heshin, Avraham Avraham and Taufik Katili said the plea bargain should be honored as it is "reasonable and balanced." They said the plea deal will have no effect on the trial of the main suspect in the case, Ameer Makhoul.
According to the original indictment, filed two months ago against the 50-year-old Said, while on vacation in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in 2008 he was approached by a man claiming to be Lebanese. The two spoke for an hour, after which the man asked Said to meet him at a local coffee shop the following day.
The indictment said the man who approached Said was a Hezbollah operative sent to recruit the Arab-Israeli to the Shiite group.
The operative asked Said to photograph Israeli military, economic and industrial facilities as well as gather information on military sites in Israel, but the Kfar Kana resident told the operative he was not the man for the job because of his age and the fact that he is a father of five.
The operative asked Said to transfer names and details of men and women in Israel who he believed could also serve as Hizbullah agents. Said gave the operative the names of two people he claimed had nationalistic attitudes. The operative then handed Said a note and asked Said to send additional names of potential spies to the email address written on it.
Said eventually tore up the note for fear of being caught with it. He never contacted the operative again.
