A colonel in the Israeli reserves has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for engaging in “serious espionage” on behalf of the former Soviet Union.
A district court here reached the verdict last week against Shimon Levinson, 60, in a trial that began in May 1991.
No details of the charges or trial have been allowed to be published, but it is known that Levinson left the Israel Defense Force in 1983.
He was reportedly embittered by the fact that he had been passed over for promotion and had not reached the rank of brigadier general before his retirement.
Following his IDF service, Levinson joined the staff of the United Nations, which sent him to Bangkok, Thailand, to take charge of a campaign against drugs.
It was in Bangkok that he reportedly first offered his services to the Soviet KGB, which he served from 1983 to 1991.
He was detained by the Shin Bet domestic security agency upon his return to Israel in May 1991, and was subsequently put on trial.
No details have been disclosed regarding the type of information he passed on to his KGB controllers, but sources within the intelligence corps say he “undoubtedly knew a lot about highly secret matters.”
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