(Ynet News) Prominent Arab-Israeli political activist Ameer Makhoul, 42, has been charged with spying for Hizbullah. Makhoul, the head of Ittijah (the Union of Arab Community-Based Associations) - an umbrella group for Arab NGOs in Israel - was charged on Thursday with serious espionage, assisting an enemy at a time of war, and maintaining contact with an enemy agent. Another suspect in the case, Omar Abdo, 40, an activist for the Balad Arab political party, was charged with maintaining contact with an enemy agent and transferring information that could be used by the enemy. According to the indictment, Makhoul relayed strategic intelligence to his Hizbullah handlers on at least ten different occasions via a specially-designed computer encryption system. Makhoul relayed details and the exact location on two Israel Security Agency facilities, a Mossad office, and a Rafael defense industry facility in northern Israel, and on the Nachshonim army base. He also relayed through coded messages the names and details of Israelis he claimed were potential Hizbullah recruits. The indictment detailed how a Hizbullah operative installed the encryption system on Makhoul's personal computer. Makhoul also disclosed the landing sites of rockets fired by Hizbullah towards Haifa during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
2010-05-27 08:25:14Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive