Lebanese arrest man on spy charges

February 21, 2009
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Lebanese authorities reportedly arrested a man on charges of spying for Israel.

Marwan F., a gas station proprietor, was arrested in Nabatiyeh, a southern town in Lebanon that is a stronghold of the Hezbollah terrorist movement, Al Akhbar, a Lebanese newspaper reported this week.

According to the newspaper, Israel recruited Marwan F. in Paris in the mid-1990s to report on the movement of Hezbollah militiamen and on its bases.

Marwan F. is the latest in a number of alleged Israeli spies arrested in recent years in Lebanon.

Ali and Yousef al-Jarrah, two brothers who lived in the Bekaa Valley, remain in custody for spying as far back as 1983, when Israel allegedly recruited Ali al-Jarrah after he was imprisoned briefly by Israeli forces during the first Lebanon war.