The trial of suspected Soviet spy Shabtai Kalmanovitz is to resume for one day on Thursday and then recess until December.
His trial opened Monday behind closed doors in Tel Aviv District Court with three judges: Menahem Ilan, Shoshana Berman and Zvi Hacohen.
According to defense attorney Amnon Zichroni, the five-hour session Monday was devoted to a “mini-trail” about the validity of the confession extracted from Kalmanovitz by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.
The defendant claims that the confession was extracted from him by Shin Bet agents using illegal methods.
Kalmanovitz, a Soviet-born businessman with important social, political and military connections in Israel, was arrested last December for alleged espionage.
The case has electrified the Israeli public, because Kalmanovitz has been at the center of previous scandals and has ties to a number of prominent Israeli officials.
He was reportedly close to the late Premier Golda Meir and formerly served as an aide to Samuel Flatto-Sharon, the eccentric multimillionaire fugitive from French justice who served as a one-man Knesset faction from 1977 to 1981.
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