Arab MK Basel Ghattas signed a plea bargain agreement late on Thursday in which he agreed to serve two years in jail and resign his Knesset seat after being accused of smuggling cellphones to two Palestinian prisoners, Israeli media sources revealed.

The sources said that lawyer of MK Basel Ghattas, of the Joint (Arab) List’s Balad faction, signed a plea deal Thursday with Israeli prosecutors in which he will resign from the Knesset and serve two years in jail.

According to the deal, MK Ghattas will admit in court early next week to charges including “smuggling phones into prison, smuggling documents and breach of trust.”

In a statement, Ghattas said everything he did was driven by personal reasons of conscience and humanitarian feelings toward the prisoners and that he accepted full responsibility for his actions.

He added that the deal provided for a different indictment to the one presented to the Knesset and would not include clauses relating to harming state security or Israeli citizens, or to terror.

Ghattas has been under a criminal investigation after he was caught on prison surveillance video passing envelopes to Palestinian prisoners in December 2016.

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