A retired Egyptian official who was exposed as one of Israel’s top spies died in Britain. Ashraf Marwan, a former Egyptian intelligence officer and son-in-law of late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, was found dead outside his London apartment Wednesday, apparently having fallen from his balcony. British police are investigating. Israeli experts speculated that Marwan, 62, may have been assassinated or committed suicide. The Egyptian government has not formally commented on his death. According to Israeli historians, Marwan was a Mossad informant who passed Jerusalem a warning that Egypt planned a surprise attack in October 1973. The information was ignored, and in the aftermath of the ruinous Yom Kippur War the Mossad chief, Zvi Zamir, and his counterpart in Israeli military intelligence, Eli Zeira, traded blame over the tragic inaction. The case went to court, during which Marwan’s identity was leaked to the press.
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