The ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) has declassified details pertaining to the arrest and conviction of IDF Colonel (reserves) Shimon Levinson, who in 1985 served as security officer for Prime Minister Shimon Peres. It is learned that Levinson was a senior KGB agent in Israel, succeeding in significantly compromising state security, passing high-level intelligence information to his KGB handlers.

Shin Bet officials explain that due to the nature of his senior security position, Levinson was privy to many state secrets pertaining to the intelligence community and various agencies, information that he passed to his handlers.

He was arrested, indicted and convicted, and he served a 12-year prison sentence, sharing a cell with infamous nuclear spy Dr. Marcus Klingberg. The highest ranking Soviet spy ever apprehended in Israel.

Levinson was released from prison in 1999, and in 2003, when the order prohibiting his traveling from Israel expired, he left the country.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)