Meah Shearim resident 46-year-old Yitzhak Bergel was arrested months ago on suspicion of trying to spy against Israel for Iran. The mainstream media had a frenzy when the story broke, reporting on the anti-Zionist Meah Shearim resident who offered to spy against Israel. Sadly, the father of six is not exactly what one might call spy material, yet he will be held accountable to some degree for his actions.

A serious indictment including charges of espionage was filed against Bergel in the Jerusalem District Court and he has been imprisoned since July 2013 for his actions, contacting Iranian diplomatic officials to offer his professional spy services.

It would appear the prosecution has come to realize the reality in the case and he is now working with defense council to reach a plea bargain. The state is offering a four-year jail term while the defense council is asking for 3.5 years, with the latter basing this on the sentence given to left-wing activist and IDF soldier Anat Kam, who handed confidential documents to members of the press and was convicted for her actions. She was sentenced to 3.5 years after it was established that the documents she passed were indeed confidential.

The Walla News report adds that Bergel has recently been taken out of solitary confinement in a Beersheva prison and transferred to Ayalon Prison amid the state’s realization that he does not pose the security threat they once attributed to him. His attorney told Walla that the state’s willingness to deal is based on a psychiatric evaluation that was to determine if he was responsible for his actions at the time of the commission of the crime. Attorney Nehorai would not elaborate.

Interestingly in some of Bergel’s conversations he told authorities of his conversations with Iranian officials. When he was asked if he ever contacted a foreign diplomatic official in the past he responded “Back in 1987 when I was a 24-year-old single man, before I was frum, I traveled to Holland and from there to Belgium. In Belgium I visited the Libyan Embassy and asked if I can migrate to Libya.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)