Yaakov charged with 'revealing state secrets'
By Zvi Harel
Ha'aretz Correspondent
Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Yaakov (Ret.) wrote two books, one a memoir and the other a fictional account in which he revealed state secrets he learned while serving in weapons development for the Israel Defense Forces, the indictment against him says.
Tel Aviv District Court Judge Uri Goren allowed portions of the indictment against the former IDF chief of weapons development to be published yesterday. From those published sections, it was revealed that it was Yaakov's authorship of the manuscripts - and the fact he gave the manuscripts to unauthorized people, including lengthy interviews with a journalist - that prompted his arrest for espionage .
The subject matter of both the memoir and the fictional account, says the indictment, includes state secrets. The charge sheet says that Yaakov was warned in 1999 by representatives of the security services, both at his home in New York and in Israel, that he should pass the manuscripts to the appropriate authorities, but that he did not do so.
Yaakov was in court yesterday for a hearing on whether his medical condition made it wise to keep him in the Prison Service hospital or under house arrest. Prof. Shlomo Laniado, who was called in by the court to testify on the matter, said that considering Yaakov recently underwent open heart surgery, the Prison Service hospital was probably a safer place for him.
Wednesday, May 9, 2001
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