(AP) -- Swiss Federal Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has filed charges against an Israeli agent caught in a bungled spying operation, her office said Wednesday.

(AP) -- Swiss Federal Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has filed charges against an Israeli agent caught in a bungled spying operation, her office said Wednesday.

The man was one of five people who were caught trying to install bugging equipment in an apartment building near the capital, Berne, in February 1998. Swiss authorities have refused to disclose his identity.

He has been charged with illegal acts for a foreign government, political espionage, attempted interception and recording of conversations and repeated falsification of identification papers.

The agent told investigators he was working on the orders of Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

He admitted that he was assigned to install the wire tap and said he intended "to save lives and contribute personally to prevent further lethal attempts of Hezbollah," the office of the investigating judge said last year.

Hezbollah is the Iranian-backed guerrilla group fighting the Israeli presence in south Lebanon.

Del Ponte's office said the man was in possession of an Israeli passport which was real but contained false information.

A Lebanese-born Swiss citizen thought to have been the target of the operation denied he has any connection with Hezbollah. Israeli media said he was linked to 1992 and 1994 bombings of Jewish targets in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that left more than 100 people dead.

Israel, which apologized for the espionage operation, paid some $2 million to bail out the arrested agent in April 1998 and guaranteed he would appear for trial in Switzerland.

Investigations continue into four other people who were held only a few hours.

The filing of charges, one of the last actions taken by Del Ponte as federal prosecutor, was announced on the day she formally took over as chief prosecutor at the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

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