The string of arrests and charges in Lebanon of alleged spies for Israel is continuing and this time it has hit Lebanon’s political arena.
On Tuesday, a military court in Lebanon charged former army general Fayez Karam of the Free Patriotic Movement with spying for Israel.
Karam is the first political figure to be charged in a wide probe of alleged Israeli espionage activity in Lebanon. He is accused of meeting with Israeli intelligence agents abroad and giving them information by phone. The information he passed along was secured through meetings between his party and Hizbullah.
The military prosecutor also charged Lebanese fugitive Elias Karam with the same offences, said an AFP report. Elias Karam had allegedly introduced Fayez to Israeli officers in Paris.
Karam’s charging is the latest in a string of arrests made in Lebanon over the last several months of people accused of spying for Israel. Lebanon has so far detained as many as 70 people on such suspicions, and more than 20 have been charged. In the last month three men had been sentenced to death. A number of those in custody were military and telecom employees.
Also last month, Beirut's An Nahar newspaper reported that one of the alleged "Telecom” spies had escaped to Israel from Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Information Minister Tareq Mitri said on last month that his country will raise accusations of espionage against Israel at the United Nations Security Council. He said that the ministers in Lebanon’s unity government agreed unanimously “to raise a detailed report on the file of the agents to the (United Nations) Security Council."