Gonen Segev

MKs


Date of birth = Birth date and age|1956|1|6|df=y
Year of Aliyah =
Date of death =
Knesset(s) = 13th
Party = Yiud
Former parties = Tzomet
Gov't roles = Minister of Energy & Infrastructure

Gonen Segev ( _he. גונן שגב, born 6 January, 1956) in Kiryat Motzkin is a former Israeli member of Knesset and government minister and pediatrician who was convicted for drug smuggling and forgery.

Segev graduated with an M.D. from 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 Tel Adashim.

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 Labour 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 7 February 1994 Tzomet MKs Segev, Esther Salmovitz, and Alex Goldfarb split from their party to form the Yiud faction. On 9 January 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.

Business and crime

After his political career Segev focused on a business career. In April 2004 Segev was arrested for smuggling thousands of Ecstasy tablets from Amsterdam to Israel that he thought were M&M's. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3652475.stm Israeli ex-minister in drugs bust] BBC News, 23 April 2004] [ [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3051558,00.html From minister to drug smuggler] Ynetnews, 27 February 2005] His diplomatic passport 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. In March 2007 his medical license was indefinitely revoked.

References

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