Gonen Segev
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Gonen Segev (Hebrew: גונן שגב) (born 6 January 1956) is a former Israeli politician and pediatrician who was convicted for drug smuggling and forgery. In politics, he served as a member of Knesset and as a government minister.
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[edit] Studies and military service
Gonen Segev was born in Israel and graduated with an M.D. from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He served in the IDF, where he made it to the rank of captain. He later worked as a private doctor and as a farmer in the same moshav as Rafael Eitan.
[edit] Political career
In the early 1990s Segev was active in the Tzomet party founded by Rafael Eitan. In 1992 he was elected to the thirteenth Kenesset, after Tzomet had won eight seats. As Israel Labor Party was the largest party in these elections it formed the government and the right-wing Tzomet party remained in the opposition. Segev served as an opposition MK and a member of the Knesset's Finance Committee.
On February 7, 1994 Tzomet MKs Segev, Esther Salmovitz, and Alex Goldfarb split from their party to form the Yiud faction. On January 9 1995, Segev became Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, after Yiud joined Yitzhak Rabin's government. Goldfarb became deputy minister, but split with Salmovitz in November 1995 from Yiud to form the Atid faction. Segev held the same minister post again from Movember 22, 1995 to June 18, 1996 in the government that Shimon Peres formed shortly after Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. His vote was vital in passing the Oslo Accords in the Knesset.
[edit] Business and crime
After his political career Segev focused on a business career. Apparently his business endeavours did not succeed. He was rumoured to have contacts with (and even debts to) Zeev Rosenstein, one of the better known criminals of Israel.
In April 2000 Segev was arrested for smuggling Ecstasy tablets from Amsterdam to Israel. Segev claimed that he thought the Ecstasy tablets were M&M's. He also carried a diplomatic passport for which the duration was illegally extended with pencil. He was convicted in a pleading deal for forgery and attempted drug smuggling and sentenced to five years imprisonment. In August 2006 an Israeli court rejected his appeal for shortening his prison term.
