Nine more persons suspected of collaborating with a Syrian-directed Arab-Jewish spy ring have been arrested during the past 24 hours, it was reported today. The latest arrests brought to 46 the number of suspects seized since Israeli security authorities cracked down on the ring last week. The suspects represent all the major religious denominations in Israel–Jewish, Moslem, Maronite Christian, Catholic and Druze. One of the latest detainees was described as an Arab student of physics at Tel Aviv University.
Public attention has been focussed on the four Jewish suspects, especially Ehud Adiv, 26, and Dan Vered, 30, both native-born Israelis, who are believed to have been among the ring leaders. Adiv and Vered were identified yesterday as members of an extreme left-wing group known as the “Red Front” which preaches violent revolution.
Sources here said the two suspects show no signs of remorse and may try to turn their trial into a political and ideological forum. Vered, a school teacher, once attended the University of Miami where he was a member of the radical SDS (Students for a Democratic Society).
2 SUSPECTS VISITED DAMASCUS
The case has already led to bitter ideological recriminations in the Knesset where many members have expressed shock that Jews were impli-
Knesseter Dov Zakin of Mapam, said “If the Jews are found guilty we shall condemn them,” The newspaper, Yediot Achronot, reported in an exclusive story today that two of the Jewish suspects had visited Damascus separately and that each stayed there about a week. The paper did not identify the suspects. It said that they were quartered in an apartment where they were taken by Syrian intelligence agents who met them at the airport.
The Syrians did not identify themselves and the Israelis did not sense any close supervision, the paper said. They spent most of their time in the apartment but one was taken on a taken a sight-seeing trip of Damascus which included a visit to the synagogue, the paper said.
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