Former Lebanese officer suspected of spying for Israel, along with 4 others.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFnasrallah 311(photo credit: AP)
Lebanese newspaper Al Diyar reported Thursday that a former Lebanese army officer who is suspected of spying for Israel has fled Lebanon. The man is currently in Frankfurt, the report said.The suspect, Rasan al-Jud, is suspected of aiding Israel with the help of employees at Alfa, the state-owned mobile telecom company.Lebanese security forces were searching for four other suspects – all technicians from the company – who have also fled Lebanon, the newspaper reported.A German Foreign Ministry spokesman told The Jerusalem Post that “the Foreign Ministry does not have any particular knowledge about the news item.”Also Thursday, Al-Jazeera reported that Lebanon plans to file a complaint about Israeli “espionage” at the United Nations, according to the country’s information minister, Tareq Mitri, who said a detailed report would be presented to the Security Council later this week.At least 35 suspects have been arrested since an investigation was launched into allegations of spying by Israeli agents inside Lebanon in April 2009.In a related development, a Lebanese court sentenced a 58-year-old Lebanese man to death on Wednesday after he was found guilty of spying for Israel.The military court headed by Brig.- Gen. Nizar Khalil ruled that Hassan Ahmed al-Hussein gave Israel information on the location of the leadership of the Shi’ite Hizbullah movement, the state-run National News Agency said.Hussein was convicted of contacting Israeli intelligence services in 2008, entering the Jewish state without Lebanon’s permission and illegal possession of weapons. The ruling is subject to appeal by Lebanon’s highest court. The death sentence is the third handed down by a military court for a defendant found guilty of spying for Israel. Bloomberg and Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.
