- 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.
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- Segev, a pediatrician by profession, served as a minister
in Yitzhak Rabin's government in the mid-1990s.
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- A sweeping gag order placed on the case two weeks ago
was partially lifted on Thursday morning.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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."
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- Segev, who was placed under arrest on Wednesday night,
denies all allegations against him.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- He reported the matter to Dutch police and to Israeli
police when he landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport.
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- Police called him in for questioning on Wednesday night,
when he was arrested.
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- 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.
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