A 30-year-old post office employee from Petach Tikvah was brought before a Tel Aviv District Court this morning on charges of espionage. The man. Chaim Akava, is accused of having offered to sell Israeli military information to Egypt. He is an electronics technician by profession.
In an unrelated case, Acre police yesterday arrested a 20 year-old Israeli Arab on charges of spying for Syria. The youth reportedly entered Syria via Jordan to work for Syrian intelligence. He faces a military court martial.
According to the prosecution in the Akava case, the defendant contacted the Egyptian Embassy in Rome in 1958, and offered to sell information on the number and deployment of Israeli missiles for $20,000. At a subsequent meeting, the prosecution says, he told the Egyptians that missiles were located at Eilat, and demanded an advance payment of $50,000. He was given $100 and a cover address with which he continued to correspond after returning to Israel. Security police who arrested Akava at his home recently, said they found correspondence with enemy agents and military maps.
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