Lebanon charges couple for collaborating with Israel
Pair ‘surrendered’ themselves to the judiciary after extended stay in the Jewish state
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
A couple has been charged by Lebanese authorities for collaborating with Israel after their return to the country from neighboring Israel earlier this month.
The couple arrived in the country on December 13 and then “surrendered themselves to the judiciary,” according to the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star, citing the country’s state news agency.
According to the report, Military Investigative Judge Fadi Sawan charged the couple for “entering Israeli territories and collaborating with the Israeli state.”
The couple apparently returned to their native country after spending years in Israel.
The report did not say why the couple had been in Israel for such an extended period of time. A number of Lebanese citizens associated with the Southern Lebanese Army were allowed to settle in Israel in 2000 following the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
Some of the families have since chosen to return to Lebanon after Hezbollah, which fought the SLA, promised that it would not harm them. Others remained in Israel and became naturalized citizens.
A number of Lebanese citizens have in recent years been accused of spying for Israel.
In 2009 Lebanon began a crackdown on espionage activities and since then some 70 people have been arrested, with three of them sentenced to death, according to a report in Al-Jazeera.
In August, security services detained Fayez Karam, a senior member of the Hezbollah-aligned Free Patriotic Movement, a Christian party, on a charge of spying for Israel, along with a senior army officer and a state telecom operator employee.
