Further Information on Spy Ring Shows Syrians Did Not Trust Jews

Further information was disclosed today on the activities of six suspected members of a Syrian-directed Arab-Jewish spy ring indicted by a Haifa district court last Thursday. The six, including two Israel-born Jews, Ehud Adiv and Dan Vered, are expected to go on trial Feb. 11.

It is not certain whether the suspects will be tried separately or collectively as the charges contained in the indictments vary. The prosecution is reportedly preparing charges against the remaining 24 suspects who have been held in custody since the ring was broken up early in Dec. but have not yet been indicted.

A study of the charge sheets released Thursday indicated that Israeli authorities may have learned of the spy ring on a tip from a Jew who the ring leader, Daoud Osmah Turki, tried to recruit. According to the charges, Turki attempted to recruit more people for the ring but some refused. The charge sheets also indicated that the Syrian authorities who ran the ring from Damascus did not have complete trust in its Jewish members.

JEWS, ARABS, UNKNOWN TO EACH OTHER

The Syrians rejected Turki’s proposal to name Adiv as his deputy. Although Adiv allegedly was put in charge of the ring’s Jewish section, the No. 2 post was assigned to Simon Hadad, an Israeli-Arab who is one of the six indicted last week. The Syrians apparently wanted to be sure that if anything happened to Turki, the ring’s documents would not fall into Jewish hands, one official said here.

The Syrians also insisted that the Jewish members of the ring should not meet or know any of the Arab members except Turki. The Syrian authorities arranged that the Jewish members should meet their contacts only in an Arab county. This was a form of insurance against the Jews defecting, an official said. The Syrians believed that any Jew known to have visited in an Arab country would face espionage charges at home if he tried to defect.

One if the six suspects indicted Thursday, Ahis Karawi, was reportedly trained as a frogman and was to have been assigned to sabotage missions against Israeli shipping, the charge sheets indicated. Karawi underwent training with underwater explosives in Syria, according to his indictment.

TERRORIST BASES IN CYPRUS, GREECE

Israeli sources said here Friday that the determination of the Cypriot authorities to maintain absolute neutrality in the Arab-Israeli conflict was turning Cyprus into a base for terrorist activities. They asserted that Greece too was becoming a terrorist base. The sources claimed they had definite information that several Cyprus based terrorists attempted to sabotage Israeli-ships at ports on the island. Sources said that terrorists on Cyprus also aided a group of terrorists who planned a suicide raid on Haifa.

Earlier this month, four suspected Arab terrorists travelling to Israel on Afghanistani passports were removed from an Italian passenger ship at Famagusta, Cyprus, the night before they were to land at Haifa. The four were apparently taken off the vessel on the basis of information provided by Israeli intelligence and were placed on a plane to Lebanon.