Last update - 00:00 20/12/2006
Ex-Hezbollah captive Tennenbaum says expected to stand trial when freed
By Haaretz Service
The former Hezbollah captive who admitted after his release in 2004 to having traveled abroad in order to pursue a drug deal in Dubai said Wednesday he had been certain he would face trial upon his return to Israel, Army Radio reported.
Elhanan Tennenbaum admitted in 2004 to going to Dubai for a drug deal, where he was assaulted en route to a business meeting.
"I thought it was fitting that I stand trial for what I did," Tennenbaum said Wednesday, according to Army Radio.
When asked if he was under the influence of drugs at any point in his trip, Tennenbaum had refused to answer. When questioned about why he gave deceptive accounts of the trip upon his return to Israel he said, "I didn't admit to everything that happened right away, I wasn't in the right mental state. It took me a while to recover."
Tennenbaum admitted Wednesday during a testimony in a tax fraud case at the Tel Aviv District Court that he had been abroad in order to pursue a drug deal, Army Radio reported. He also said that he had turned his life around, and has begun to study law.
He referred to the affair as a black stain upon his life, adding "I'm not proud of what I did."
During his testimony, the radio reported, Tennenbaum said he made the trip to Dubai in order to carry out a drug deal from which he expected to make $200,000.
Tennenbaum also admitted that he used a fake ID while traveling abroad on his business trip.
The retired Israel Defense Forces colonel had initially claimed that he had been abroad in an attempt to uncover information on the whereabouts of missing Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, who disappeared when his plane went down over Lebanon in 1986.
Tennenbaum was returned to Israel in January 2004, after more than three years in captivity. Under the terms of the prisoner exchange deal, Israel released hundreds of Arab and Palestinian prisoners in return for the bodies of three IDF soldiers and Tennenbaum.