Israel and Egypt plunged into another espionage scandal less than two weeks after four Israelis held as spies in Cairo were released.
The Egyptians are now demanding that Israel reciprocate by freeing a man alleged to have been spying on Israel for Egyptian intelligence for at least six years.
The Israelis insist he must stand trial.
The suspect, about 45, was not publicly identified. According to the Israeli authorities, he was detained by an army patrol last Sept. 8 trying to cross the Jordanian border into Israel near Eilat.
He was held under administrative detention for six months and formally charged two months ago, by which time the Egyptian authorities reportedly had been notified of his arrest. Representatives of the Egyptian consulate are said to have visited him several times in the Beersheba jail.
But the case became public knowledge only last Thursday when the suspect was taken to the Beersheba District Court to have his detention extended. Journalists petitioned the court to release information about the case.
Secrecy was maintained, according to the authorities, for fear that publicity would have jeopardized the release of David Ovitz, an Israeli furniture dealer detained in Cairo along with an Israeli Arab, Fares Mussarti, his son Majid and daughter Faya. They were arrested early in February on suspicion of spying, though it was never made clear for whom. They were freed and returned to Israel on May 6.
The Israelis said their suspect, a resident of Sinai, had been infiltrating Israel regularly since the mid-1980s on behalf of Egyptian intelligence. They said he passed on classified information and photographs of military installations in southern Israel.
According to the official account, the suspect told his captors he was going from Jordan to Egypt and crossed into Israel by mistake. But Jordan has no common border with Egypt.
The suspect later confessed, Israeli sources said. But Egypt is demanding his release as a gesture of good will for the release of the four Israelis jailed in Egypt.
Israeli sources say, for the record, that his release cannot be considered for the time being and the judicial process must run its course. A trial is scheduled for next month.
Israel claims that whereas the Egyptians knew all along that the Israelis they arrested were innocent of espionage, a strong case exists against the Egyptian national in Israel’s hands.
But the suspect’s Israeli lawyer, Haim Kasis, said his client’s confession was obtained under physical duress and that the man accused of collecting classified documents is in fact illiterate.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
