A European Government, believed to be a Communist power, has been foreign recent immigrants to Israel to conduct espionage activities by threatening to punish their relatives, still living in Europe, it was reported here today by Bamahne, the official publication of the Israel Armed Forces. The espionage information was believed to have been forwarded to Egyptian intelligence agents, the newspaper indicated.
The espionage network was uncovered when one of the immigrant agents, a Government engineer who is a reserve Israel Air Force officer, confessed to security officers that he had been forced to sign a pledge to spy in Israel before he left his country of origin. He said he had lost his job four days after applying for an immigration visa to Israel, and that he was summoned by Government officials who told him that they would allow his departure only on condition that he supply security information from Israel. They told him also that his parents would be held as hostages.
The newspaper said that the man supplied information, such as details of military air bases and troop movements, to a courier who had diplomatic status in Israel. The man, the paper said, realized that the information would be of little interest to a European power and must have been intended for the intelligence services of Arab countries.
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