Freed Syrian Officer Seeks Political Asylum in Germany

(Ha'aretz) Yossi Melman - One of the strangest stories to emerge from Thursday's Israel-Hizballah prisoner swap was that of Syrian intelligence officer Yussuf Abdul Jalil, who requested asylum immediately on his arrival in Germany. In 1994, Jalil went to the Golan Heights and defected to the first Israeli patrol he saw. Israel believed he had been deliberately sent by Syrian intelligence.