A senior local Arab official of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency in Jerusalem was sentenced Friday to life imprisonment by a Lydda military court on charges of espionage and of setting up a terrorist cell. Haled El Amari, 43, of East Jerusalem, was accused of using his UN diplomatic immunity to transfer military information from Israel to Amman by gathering such information and sending it to Amman in UN mail pouches.
Another charge was that he received in similar pouches explosives from Amman hidden in UN files. Said Ayesh, one of his aides, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. The indictment stated that Ayesh was one of several men sent to various places in Israel to collect details on military installations, prisons and fuel stores.
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