A Lebanese military prosecutor was seeking the death penalty for 3 men charged with spying for Israel and the attempted murder by one of them of an Al-Qaida suspect, the French AFP news agency reported on Monday.
Judge Samih al-Hajj charged the two Lebanese and one Palestinian, according to the AFP report, with "providing Israel with information as well as facilitating its aggressions and terrorist acts on Lebanon," according to the charge sheet.
Palestinian Mohammed Ibrahim Awad and Lebanese Robert Edmond Kfoury areboth in custody. The 3rd suspect, Lebanese Elias Riyad Karam, was charged in absentia.
Awad is also suspected with the attempted murder of Naim Abbas, suspected of being a member of an Al-Qaida cell in the Ain al-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon's south.
Last spring, Lebanon arrested close to 20 alleged members of 6 espionage cells suspected of transmitting intelligence information to Israel. The 2-month crackdown was apparently aided by American training and equipment.
The wave of detentions began in April 2009 with the arrest of a former brigadier general of the General Security directorate.
Senior Lebanese security officials have said the arrests dealt a major blow to Israel's spying networks in Lebanon and that many of the suspects played key roles in identifying Hezbollah targets that were bombed during the 34-day war.
Other suspects have been charged with monitoring senior Hezbollah officials and at least 1 is alleged to have played a role in the 2004 assassination of a commander of the group.
Hezbollah, the Iranian- and Syrian-backed military and political group, has called for the death penalty for all suspects convicted of spying for Israel. Hezbollah and Israel fought a war in 2006.
Source: Ha'aretz, April 12, 2010
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