 Swiss
Demand Imprisonment for Mossad Spy By Alexander G. Higgins
Associated Press
Writer LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) - A
Swiss prosecutor called Thursday for a 15-month
prison sentence for an Israeli Mossad spy who
admitted installing illegal wiretap equipment. But
the agent's lawyers said he should be acquitted
because he was trying to prevent terror attacks.
The agent, being tried under the pseudonym Issac
Bental, was caught in February 1998 trying to
bug the apartment of a Swiss-Lebanese citizen whom
Israel suspected of supporting terrorist acts by
the anti-Israeli Hezbollah. Defense attorney
Ralph Zloczower said in his closing
arguments that his client was obliged to collect
information on terrorists even if it violated Swiss
law. "The danger of terror is omnipresent for Israel,
its inhabitants and Jews," Zloczower said. "It is
essential that the Israeli people have an effective
intelligence agency to assure that threats to the
country are recognized well in advance so that they
can be successfully combatted." But deputy federal
prosecutor Felix Baenziger argued there was
no "immediate danger" to Israel. "The case
presented falls far short of being an emergency
situation," he said. The five-judge panel was expected to issue a
decision Friday. Bental was one of five Mossad agents caught
installing wiretap equipment in the basement of an
apartment building near the Swiss capital, Bern.
The other agents - two men and two women - were
released by local police after questioning, but
Bental was handed over to federal police because he
was carrying a diplomatic bag containing the
wiretapping tools. Bental spent 65 days in jail before being
released on $2 million bail and the assurances of
the Israeli government that he would return to face
trial. The trial has caused a fury among Mossad
agents, angered that one of their own should face
such public investigation in a foreign country.
Although other Mossad agents
have been arrested abroad and even tried, the Swiss
procedure has exposed Bental to unusual
scrutiny. Swiss prosecutors and the five-judge panel of
the Federal Criminal Court allowed Bental to
continue hiding his true identity - even from them
- on grounds that revealing it could endanger his
life. They also have refrained from pressing him for
answers about Mossad operations beyond what they
already know about his failed mission. But the
defendant has been required to sit on the bench
next to his Swiss lawyers, where he can be seen by
court spectators. His comments are translated from
Hebrew into German for the court. Four Israeli
diplomats sit behind him for moral support. Bental admitted to each of the three charges
against him - that he acted illegally for a foreign
country, conducted political espionage and
repeatedly used false foreign identity
documents. Bental's lawyers have outlined links between the
target of the operation, Abdallah el-Zein,
and terrorist masters in Lebanon and Iran. El-Zein,
a Lebanese-born car dealer who obtained Swiss
citizenship by marriage, ran an Ahl El-Beit center,
part of an international chain that promotes
adherence to Shiite Islam. But a Swiss police expert said investigators had
been unable to prove that the worldwide Ahl El-Beit
network were connected to Hezbollah, the
Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim guerrilla group that
led the fight against Israeli occupation of
southern Lebanon. Baenziger, the prosecutor, said Switzerland had
always "done everything imaginable" to cooperate
with Mossad and the agency should have sought Swiss
help because that was the only legal way to carry
out such surveillance. But defense attorneys said
the evidence the Israeli agents had collected was
insufficient to use standard procedures and
persuade Swiss officials to setup the wiretap for
them. 
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