Israeli Arrested As Spy for Iron Curtain Country; Worked at Airport

A 27-year-old aircraft technician is under arrest on charges of spying for a foreign country, police authorities here reported today. Under security regulations, neither the man’s name nor the foreign country for which he is alleged to have done the espionage were named.

The country concerned, it is understood, is behind the Iron Curtain. The man was employed at Lydda Airport, and is charged with having passed on to a foreign power important information about Israeli aircraft and air fields.

While little information was revealed by police, some details of the case were learned. The man’s parents reportedly live in a foreign country. When the technician went to that country’s legation here and expressed a keen desire to be reunited with his parents, he was allegedly asked to deliver certain secret information.

It is asserted that the man was given a visa to go to the country to see his parents and, upon his return here, was ordered to continue his espionage activities. Later, it is understood, his services were considered so important that an Ambassador from the country concerned came here to see him and to brief him on exactly the type of information required.

Meanwhile, however, the man’s parents are still in the foreign country, and the man was promised that his parents would be permitted to come here if he continued to furnish information desired. The suspect’s trial is scheduled for mid-September.

Recently, another Israeli was arrested on espionage charges, under circumstances similar to those surrounding the latest suspect. In the other case, too, the suspect has apparently been trapped into spying because of his interest in bringing here members of his family living in an Iron Curtain country. The first suspect had also been promised that his family would be permitted to come to Israel, and this promise, was not kept.