Algeria's Criminal Court Saturday convicted Bin Sakhnoun Sa'id, a journalist, of collecting information and documents with the intention of transferring them to Israel's foreign intelligence service (Mossad), Algerian dailies Al-Khabar and Al-Fajr reported.
The information included sensitive defense and economic information regarding the situation in the Al-Qabail region, legal sources revealed. The trial began in December 2005, but remained uncovered by the media following a court decision.
A second person accused of espionage, Tawir 'Ali, a policeman, was found not guilty.
His lawyers claimed he made an innocent professional mistake when he revealed some secret information to Sa'id, a personal friend.
According to the court, Sa'id began his relations with Israel in 1993 when he wrote an article about Shimom Peres, then Israel’s foreign minister. Sa'id described Peres, who was one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, as a "man of peace." Following his article, Sa'id was invited to meet with Israel's ambassador to the Ivory Coast and that was the beginning of the relationship.
Sa'id admitted he had served as a Mossad agent since 1995 and that he had received $1,500 a month. He claimed, however, that as soon as he was recruited by the Mossad he notified the Algerian security services. He also stressed that he had never transferred any information regarding Algeria to his Israeli employers.
