Former Israeli minister Gonen Segev imprisoned for 11 years for spying for Iran

Segev was arrested in June last year on charges of passing information to Iran

Former Israeli energy minister Gonen Segev appears at the Tel Aviv district court in 2004.

A former Israeli minister has been imprisoned for 11 years for spying for Iran, the country's prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Gonen Segev, Israel's minister of energy and infrastructure from 1995 to 1996 under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, admitted spying for Iran in January and entered into a plea bargain. ​​​

Court hearings were held in secret due to the sensitive nature of the case.

The Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, alleged that Segev had been passing information about the country's energy sector, security sites and officials to Iran through an encrypted communications system, upon his arrest in June last year.

Segev, a physician, was jailed in Israel in 2004 after being convicted of attempting to smuggle ecstasy pills into the country. He left Israel in 2007 after his release from prison.

He has also been convicted of attempted credit card fraud.