Dual Canadian-Lebanese arrested for spying for Israel
Identified as Tabet Tabet, he is heard calling on the Canadian government to get him released.
By ANNA AHRONHEIMA Middle East Airlines flight, at Rafic Hariri International Airport, Beirut, Lebanon(photo credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/KURUSH PAWAR)
A Lebanese-Canadian dual national was arrested in Beirut on suspicion of spying for Israeli intelligence, Lebanese authorities said.The man, identified as 41-year-old Tabet Tabet by Lebanon’s LBCI television network, was arrested by officers of the General Security Directorate at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport Tuesday, on “suspicion of collaborating with Israel.”According to LCBI, the General Security Directorate had 303 intelligence reports showing that Tabet collaborated with Israel. He was referred to the judiciary for investigation, the statement added.In a video filmed from his detention at the airport, Tabet called on the Canadian government to get him released.“I have been held hostage by the corrupt Lebanese government. I am Tabet Tabet and I am at Beirut’s airport. I want the Canadian embassy and government to do her job,” he is heard saying before repeating the message in Arabic.Israel and Lebanon remain in a state of war, and the Lebanese government has detained hundreds of people on suspicion of spying for Israel since 2009.In March, another dual Canadian-Lebanese man identified only as F.G., who was born in 1978, was arrested on similar charges. According to reports, the man admitted during interrogation that he had been recruited in 2013 by a Lebanese fugitive who belonged to an Israeli Army Intelligence network called “Unit 504.”He confessed to spying on Hezbollah, trying to gather intelligence on its operatives and on Israeli pilot Ron Arad, who has been missing since 1986 when his plane was shot down over southern Lebanon and is believed to have been handed over to the terror group.He had also been told to recruit other Lebanese citizens to infiltrate Hezbollah.Last November another man, identified as Mohammad Hussein Fakih, was arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel’s Mossad as he was attempting to cross from the southern Lebanese village of Meiss Ej Jabal into Israel.
On September 25, 2018, Lebanon’s Military Tribunal sentenced three Lebanese nationals to three years in prison with hard labor on charges of spying on Hezbollah for therying to gather intelligence on Hezbollah operatives and Israeli pilot Ron Arad who has been missing since 1986 when his plane was shot down over southern Lebanon and believed to have been handed to the terror group.He had also been told to recruit other Lebanese citizens to infiltrate into Hezbollah.In November of last year, another man identified as Mohammad Hussein Fakih was arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel’s Mossad as he was attempting to cross from the southern Lebanese village of Meiss Ej Jabal in Israel.On September 25th 2018, Lebanon’s Military Tribunal sentenced three Lebanese nationals to three years in prison with hard labor charges on charges of spying on Hezbollah for the Mossad.
