Six Spy Ring Members Ordered Retained in Custody Until Their Trial Opens

Six suspected members of a Syrian-directed Arab-Jewish spy ring were ordered retained in custody until their trial opens by a Haifa district court judge today, Judge Y. Slonim acted on the request of the prosecutor, Haifa, District Attorney Itzhak Garbeli, after formal charges were filed against the six suspects who were arrested early last Dec. after a long period under surveillance. The suspects offered no objections to the remand order. No trial date has been announced.

The six suspects, two of them Israel-born Jews, were brought to the heavily guarded courthouse this morning to hear the charges, Prior to the filing of formal charges the court could extend their detention for no longer than 15 days at a time, a period extendable only on special request by the State. In requesting further custody, the District Attorney observed that “The court must be aware of the fact that-some of the charges mentioned in the charge sheets entail life imprisonment.”

Appearing in court today were Ehud Adiv, 26, and Dan-Vered, 30, alleged key members of the spy ring’s Jewish section, and Daoud Osman Turki, an Arab Christian and Israeli Communist Party functionary from Haifa who was allegedly the ring’s leader. Also appearing were Simon Hadad who headed the Arab student organization at Haifa University, Annis Karawi, an Arab from Shaferam, and Subhi Naarani of Bosmat Tivon, a Bedouin settlement near Haifa. Hadad was charged only with membership in a hostile organization.

The other five suspects were charged with maintaining direct contact with enemy agents. Adiv and Vered were charged specifically with passing information of a military nature to Syrian agents.

CHARGES AGAINST SUSPECTS OUTLINED

According to the charge sheet, the spy ring dated back to 1968 when Turki began organizing a group with the goal of organizing left-wing revolutions in Israel and the Arab states. In 1969 he went to Cyprus where he met Habib Kawagi, a former Palestinian Arab working for Egyptian intelligence who agreed to finance Turki’s activities. Kawagi provided Turki with a code book and instructions for receiving and transmitting information. Turki returned to Israel where he recruited members from Matzpen, an extreme left-wing organization, Adiv among them. Turki also visited Lebanon and Syria where he was trained in the use of arms and explosives and given a new code based on the Koran.

According to the charges against Adiv, described as the No. 2 man of the ring, he was assigned by Turki to recruit Jews and to send them to Syria for training. Adiv, who was born and raised at Kibbutz Gan Shmuel and is a combat veteran of the parachute brigade that participated in the capture of East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War, allegedly visited Syria twice in connection with the ring’s espionage activities.

He is alleged to have provided Kawagi with detailed Israeli military intelligence including the strength and deployment of paratroop units, the nature of Israeli armaments and the location of armored corps headquarters. The information helped Syrian intelligence calculate the strength of Israeli forces on certain sectors of the front, the charges said. Adiv also allegedly provided information on the location of airfields and arms production plants and selected military and civilian targets for sabotage.

He also allegedly supplied Vered with money to go to Athens to meet enemy agents. Vered, a teacher who graduated from the University of Miami in 1972 and joined Matzpen, also visited Syria and provided Syrian intelligence with information on Israel’s military reserves, armored corps and tank strength. According to the charges, Adiv also supplied Syria with economic and political intelligence on Israel. This was reportedly contained in a report he drafted during 10 days he spent in an apartment in Damascus.