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Israel's former ambassador to Belarus sentenced to four months' community service

Israel’s former ambassador to Belarus, Ze'ev Ben Aryeh, has been sentenced to four months in prison to be served through community service.

The Jerusalem District Court found the diplomat guilty of obstructing an investigation against Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

When Mr. Ben-Aryeh was still ambassador in Minsk, in 2008, he illegally tipped off Mr. Lieberman regarding an investigation into charges that the minister had accepted bribes and failed to report income to the tax authorities, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Mr. Ben-Aryeh confessed that he had passed to Mr. Lieberman a copy of classified documents sent by Israel's police to their Belarusian colleagues in 2008. Reports had it that he had defied a request to transfer the documents regarding the investigation directly and discreetly from the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem to the authorities in Belarus, copying the classified information and passing it to Mr. Lieberman.

The documents contained a request to question banks and prominent figures in Belarus that could be involved in Mr. Lieberman's suspected illegal dealings.

Mr. Ben-Aryeh served as ambassador to Belarus between 2004 and January 2009. //BelaPAN