AN Israeli former Cabinet minister admitted to spying for Iran yesterday in a plea deal in exchange for an 11-year prison sentence, the Israeli Justice Ministry said.

Gonen Segev, energy minister from 1995 to 1996, was indicted in June. The Shin Bet internal security service said at the time he had been recruited by Iranian intelligence while living in Nigeria and had “served as an agent.”

Investigators found that Segev made contact with officials at the Iranian embassy in Nigeria in 2012 and that he visited Iran twice for meetings with his handlers, the Shin Bet said.

Segev, it said, received an encrypted communications system from Iranian agents and supplied Iran with “information related to the energy sector, security sites in Israel and officials in political and security institutions.” (SD-Agencies)