Hizbullah dismisses Israeli espionage claims

Published June 28th, 2002 - 03:00 GMT

Hizbullah denied Friday all charges connecting it to an 35-year-old man accused by Israel of spying for the Lebanese group.

In a report published by the Lebanese daily As-Safir, Hizbullah claimed that the charges against the man, who emigrated from Lebanon 10 years ago, were part of Israeli propaganda, in preparation of a strike against Hizbullah and Syrian targets.

The man was indicted Thursday in the Tel Aviv District Court on charges of spying for Hizbullah. He is suspected, among other charges, of maintaining telephone ties with a rank-and-file and a senior member of the Lebanese resistance group.

The Israeli court, meanwhile, has imposed a gag order on the personal particulars of the man, releasing only that his first name is "Nissim," that his mother is Jewish and his late father was Shi'ite, and that some members of his family, with whom he remains in contact via telephone, are still in Lebanon.

According to Israeli press reports, Hizbullah has recently intensified its espionage efforts in Israel and the Palestinian territories. According to these reports, in addition to "Nissim", a 25-year-old man who arrived in Israel several months ago and later moved into the Palestinian territories, turned himself in to the Israeli troops currently surrounding the Hebron headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. No other details were released about his case.(Albawaba.com)