Peru to charge Hezbollah man who eyed Israeli targets
Lebanese suspect arrested in Lima was allegedly planning attacks on Jewish institutions
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Peruvian authorities said on Monday that they would charge a Lebanese man arrested last month in Lima who confessed to being a member of Hezbollah and had been found with traces of explosives.
Mohammed Amadar allegedly surveyed potential Jewish and Israel targets in the capital, but police did not say what charges would be pressed against him, Reuters reported. Amadar was apprehended by counter-terrorism police at the end of October.
Peruvian police director Jorge Flores told reporters that the man revealed he was working on behalf of the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
“He has accepted being a member of Hezbollah,” Flores said. “The investigation has concluded and corresponding paperwork will be processed. Today he is going to be made available to the attorney’s general office as a detainee.”
Police found traces of TNT on Amadar’s hands and in the apartment where he was staying.
The suspect was reportedly gathering intelligence on Jewish institutions and places frequented by Israeli hikers. Authorities said that they were questioning Amadar to learn more about his intended targets.
According to a report in Haaretz, citing the local La Republica newspaper, Amadar arrived in Peru in November 2013 and married a woman with both Peruvian and American citizenship just two weeks later. The couple left for Brazil, and then returned to Peru earlier this year.
Peruvian authorities were tipped off to Amadar’s alleged activities by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, and he was questioned after returning to Peru.
Authorities kept him under constant surveillance, discovering that neither he nor his wife worked, but received Western Union money transfers, a method often used by Hezbollah.
