maandag 20 juni 2011

Israel seeks prisoner exchange for Ilan Grapel

Ilan Grapel in Tahrir Square in a picture taken from his Facebook account.




Israel is pursuing a prisoner exchange for accused Israeli spy Ilan Grapel, the Egyptian newspaper Al- Akhbar reported on Sunday.


The report said Israel has offered to release three Egyptians recently arrested in Israel in exchange for the 27-year-old American-Israeli dual citizen, who was arrested by Egyptian state security officers at his downtown Cairo hotel last Sunday for allegedly spying for Israeli intelligence (Mossad).

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry would not comment on the report, but said that Israel “is doing what it can in order to help Grapel, and get him out of Egypt.”

He added that Israeli authorities have no ironclad assessmenhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift of when this will take place. He also confirmed that officials from the Israeli Embassy in Cairo visited Grapel last week.

Most notably, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Army Radio last Tuesday that Grapel “is a student, maybe a bit strange or irresponsible; but he has no connection to any intelligence service; not Israeli or American and not on Mars.”

Read whole article: JerusalemPost

Read in Dutch/Nederlands: In Egypte gearresteerde Grapel 'in grote problemen'