A 23-year-old Jerusalem resident went on trial in District Court here today on charges of contacting the Syrian authorities for purposes of espionage and collection of military information. The accused, known as Oliver McClean, was formerly Yitzchak Weiss.
The police are said to have found incriminating evidence against McClean at the correspondence school for English studies here which he directs. A lecturer from the Haifa Technion testified today that he met the accused in a cafe in Istanbul last year and that McClean left behind a packet of papers which indicated that he had been in contact with the Syrian consul in that city. The Israeli lecturer rushed to the Israeli consul with the papers.
An investigation by the consul resulted in McClean’s arrest. The papers, read in court, included a letter to the intelligence department of the Syrian War Ministry in which McClean referred to information he had already furnished the Syrians and offered to do further espionage work.
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