The verdict in the trial of Miss Mary Frances Hagen, of Huntington, West Virginia, who is accused of acting as a Syrian spy in Israel is expected to be handed down here Thursday. Her secret trial lasted three days, from last Wednesday to Friday.
The 29-year-old woman was arrested in August a few days after she came to Israel from Damascus. She arrived in the Jewish State as a tourist, a government spokesman said, then identified herself as a journalist although she did not register as such with the government. Arrested after her questioning of various people had aroused suspicion, she was alleged to have been in possession of incriminating documents and photographs.
Miss Hagen was a student at Columbia University in 1951, It was established, and subsequently became secretary of the anti-Zionist, anti-Israel American Friends of the Middle East in 1953 and a secretary to the Syrian delegation at the United Nations in 1954. In 1955, after a tour of several Arab states, Miss Hagen became secretary of the Arab Students Organization in New York.
Her trial was attended by a representative of the State Department and by a member of the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Israel. She was advised of her legal rights by the Embassy. American press reports that the Israeli authorities, who conducted her trial in camera, had hidden her identity at the request of the U. S. Embassy was denied here. An Israeli spokesman said that her identity was shielded for security reasons.
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