Israel Denies Man Held in Egypt a Spy
A U.S.-Israeli citizen being held in Egypt on espionage charges is not a spy, Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli military radio on Tuesday.
"I can say categorically that this student, who may have behaved bizarrely and irresponsibly, has no ties with Israeli, American or even lunar intelligence services," Lieberman said.
"This is a mistake or bizarre behavior on the part of the Egyptian authorities, who have received full explanations from us," he added.
"They understand that it would be good to put an end to this issue as quickly as possible... I hope that everything will be over in the coming days and that will be achieved by a deportation."
American-born Ilan Grapel was arrested on Sunday in a Cairo hotel and placed in preventative detention for 15 days, according to Egyptian media.
He has reportedly been accused of being an agent with Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and of sowing sectarian strife and chaos in Egypt after a popular uprising forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down on February 11.
On Monday, the U.S. embassy in Cairo confirmed that "Ilan Chaim Grapel, age 27, is a U.S. citizen and was detained on June 12, 2011 by Egyptian authorities."
"A consular officer visited Mr Grapel on June 13 and confirmed that he was in good health," embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton told Agence France Presse.
Egyptian authorities said on Sunday that Grapel had been "posing as a foreign correspondent," and that his movements and phone calls had been monitored before his arrest.
Several pictures of Grapel were released showing him in Israeli army uniform posing with other soldiers, and shaking hands with worshippers at a mosque in Cairo.
Another picture shows Grapel standing in Tahrir Square -- the symbolic heart of protests that brought down Mubarak -- wearing sunglasses and holding a large sign that read: "Oh stupid Obama, it is a pride revolution not a food revolution."
Another front-page photo on the state-owned daily al-Ahram and shown repeatedly on state TV shows Grapel holding a microphone in a mosque, apparently "preaching."
Last year, Egypt -- which signed a 1979 peace treaty with Israel -- said the confessions of an Egyptian accused of spying for Israel had led to three espionage cells being dismantled in Lebanon and Syria.
Source: Agence France Presse
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