Lebanese intelligence forces have arrested a Lebanese-Canadian man on charges of spying for Israel’s Mossad spy agency and collaboration with the regime’s authorities through gathering intelligence about the Hezbollah resistance movement and missing Israeli pilot Ron Arad.
The General Security Directorate announced in a statement on Tuesday that the suspect, identified only by his initials as F.G., admitted during interrogation that he was recruited by fugitive Lebanese spy N.G. in 2013. N.G. currently chairs a division in the 504 Unit of the Israeli intelligence service.
F.G. also confessed that he had been assigned to recruit Lebanese people to infiltrate Hezbollah’s support zone and collect security information for Israel, including hints about the missing pilot.
The 41-year-old suspect was referred to related judiciary officials, and efforts are underway to arrest those who worked with him.
The Lebanese Army’s intelligence branch stated on November 12 last year that it had arrested a man suspected of spying for Mossad as he was attempting to cross the southern border into occupied Palestinian territories.
The army said the man, identified as Mohammad Hussein Fakih, was captured in the village of Meiss Ej Jabal, situated some 78 kilometers (49 miles) south of the capital Beirut.
On September 25 last year, Lebanon's Military Tribunal sentenced three Lebanese nationals to three years in prison with hard labor on charges of espionage on Hezbollah for Mossad.
On October 16, 1986, Arad and his co-pilot, Yishai Aviram, ejected themselves from their Phantom jet while conducting strikes on the positions of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) around the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.
The tribunal, chaired by Brigadier General Hussein Abdallah, issued the verdicts against Hasan Salemeh, Karam Idris and Kamal Hasan after they were found guilty of providing the Israeli regime with intelligence about Hezbollah’s military arsenal and operations, and with photos of several strategic locations in Lebanon.
The court also stripped them of their rights as Lebanese citizens.
The three had been arrested in October 2017 and charged with communicating information to Israel. They reportedly possessed Israeli wireless communication devices at the time of their arrest.
Two other defendants, identified as Lebanese nationals H.K. and N.Sh., were separately questioned after they allegedly contacted Israelis through Facebook.