'Sheikh Hassan Msheymish was arrested in July in Syria based on data Lebanese police intelligence had sent to Syrian authorities indicating that he was implicated in collaborating with Israel,' the official told AFP.
Msheymish was still being interrogated by Syrian authorities as preliminary information gathered by Lebanese intelligence indicated he may have been spying on targets in Syria, the official said.
One of the sheikh’s sons told AFP in July that Msheymish, a vocal critic Hizbullah, had been detained while on his way to the Saudi city of Mecca on a religious pilgrimage.
On Wednesday, the Lebanese Foreign Affairs Ministry dispatched a letter of complaint against Israel recruitment of collaborators in Lebanon to the Lebanese permanent mission at the UN Security Council.
The seven-page letter to the UN comprises a briefing of information provided by the Foreign Affairs, Defense, Justice, and Telecommunications ministries regarding the issue of Israeli spies.
The letter mentioned that the number of Lebanese collaborators with Israel reached 150.
Also on Wednesday, state prosecutor Saeed Mirza issued an arrest warrant against a suspected spy for Israel – Ghassan al-Jidd – to international police agency Interpol, after reports the suspect, who fled the country last year, may be in France.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah first spoke of Jidd during a news conference last month in which he was presenting testimony that he said linked Israel to the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
More than 100 people have been arrested on suspicion of espionage since April 2009, including telecom employees, members of the security forces and active duty troops.
Many of the suspects are accused of having helped Israel identify targets during its devastating 2006 war against Lebanon. About 50 people have been charged with spying for Israel. Five of those tried have been sentenced to death for spying for Mossad.
President Michel Sleiman had voiced his readiness to sign on death sentences if issued against suspected Israeli agents.
On Thursday, two MPs from the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc called for referring a senior official in the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) arrested on suspicions of collaborating with Israel to concerned judiciary, saying his continued detention by the Internal Security Forces (ISF) Information Branch was illegal.
Kesrouan MP Michel Aoun heads the FPM along with the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc.
Pan Arab-newspaper Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reported Thursday that Metn MP Nabil Nicolas and Jezzine MP Ziad Aswad have labeled the detention of retired General Fayez Karam by the ISF for more than one month as 'illegal.' Karam, 62 is the FPM official responsible for north Lebanon.
Karam was arrested in early August by units of the ISF of on suspicion of collaboration.
A few days later, military prosecutor Saqr Saqr charged Karam with spying for Israel.
In a telephone conversation with the newspaper, Karam’s defense attorneys Rashad Salameh and Cinderella Merhej said the lawmakers’ demands were legal.
'[Karam] is not being interrogated by the Information Branch anymore because investigations are now in the hands of the first investigative military magistrate,' they said.
'This means that the [Information] branch no longer has the right to conduct investigations, because he has no more the authority … and prerogatives to carry on the investigations,' they added.
They stressed that Karam should be withheld in a 'legal' prison rather than being arrested by the Information branch.
In other news, Saqr charged detained Palestinian Wael Abdallah along with Hassan Nawfal, another Palestinian who is outside the country with collaborating with Israel.
Saqr made similar charges against detainee Toni Butros, who is Lebanese, along with Joseph Qassis, another Lebanese but living outside Lebanon.
He referred the detainees to the first investigative military prosecutor." (source)
