Mossad agents are threatening to refuse missions in protest of Israel’s decision to hand over an operative of the spy agency to Switzerland.
The agent, under the alias Isaac Bental, is on trial in Lausanne on spying and wiretapping charges.
He was nabbed in February 1988, installing a bug in an apartment in the Swiss capital, Berne.
Mossad agents told Israeli Radio yesterday they are “angry and greatly frustrated” that Bental was handed over.
In addition to spying and wiretapping, Bental also faces charges of entering the country using papers with false names and carrying out illegal acts for a foreign state.
The operation’s target was Abdallah el-Zein, a Swiss citizen of Lebanese descent who manages an Islamic center in Berne.
Cops caught Bental and four colleagues installing the bugging equipment in the basement of el-Zein’s apartment building after residents reported strange noises.
Only Bental was arrested, because he was holding a bag with tools to install the wiretap.
On the second day of the trial yesterday, his lawyers probed for links between el-Zein and terrorist masters in Lebanon and Iran.
But a Swiss police expert testified that investigators were unable to connect the center to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist group.