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Mossad
agent to appear at Swiss trial under alias
ZURICH, Switzerland (Reuters) -- A self-confessed agent for
Israel's Mossad secret service is to go on trial in Switzerland Monday for
his role in a bungled 1998 wiretap attempt without his true identity being
revealed.
A federal police office spokesman said the man, caught
with electronic gear in an apartment building near the capital Berne, would
be allowed to return to Switzerland for the trial under the name
"David Bental," known to be one of his aliases.
"He will come to Switzerland with genuine Israeli
papers," Folco Galli, spokesman for the Federal Police Office, said.
The court has made no special provision for preventing
people from seeing the man's face in the courtroom, Swiss police sources
said.
Apart from wiretapping, the charges against the man, also
named "David Bental" on documents from the federal court in
Lausanne where he will stand trial, include entering the country using genuine travel
papers with false names.
Other charges include political espionage and carrying out illegal acts
for a foreign state.
The federal prosecutor's office has
said the accused
admitted to acting on orders from Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.
Galli said the agent's murky identity was not a problem
for the Swiss. "The Federal Court let him go on bail and allowed him
to leave the country under that name (Bental)."
The man was arrested in February 1998 together with five others
after a resident raised the alarm.
Police who found the group in the basement of the
apartment building trying to tap the phone of a Lebanese-born car dealer
believed to have links to Hezbollah (Party of God) guerrillas.
The others were let go before prosecutors arrived, but
Bental was detained after he failed to explain what he was doing with a suitcase
full of electronic equipment.
Israel paid bail of three million Swiss francs ($1.85 million) and apologized. Bental was allowed to leave the
country.
Federal Court Judge Hans Wipraechtiger said the accused's
veiled identity was not an issue for the court.
"We expect the federal police to confirm that this
is the man who was caught. That is important."
"It is not good that we will know anything about his
previous life or his record, but that is not that rare. It also happens in
the case of illegal immigrants," he said.
Wipraechtiger said the Israeli state prosecution office
had told the court that Bental had no previous convictions.
The trial is due to start, when Bental will be heard.
Tuesday, further witnesses will appear. Both sides are to sum up Thursday
and sentence is due to be pronounced Friday.
Political espionage is punishable with up to four years
in jail in Switzerland.
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