Danish Citizen Admits to Spying for Hezbollah in Israel

Ayad al-Ashuah, a 39-year-old Lebanese-born Danish citizen who was arrested on January 6, has admitted to being a Hezbollah operative sent to Israel to gather information on security facilities and recruit Israeli Arabs to join Hezbollah, HA’ARETZ reported. A court order allowed public disclosure of the details surrounding al-Ashuah’s arrest.

While traveling on a train from Nahariya to Haifa, al-Ashuah, who was born in Lebanon and immigrated to Denmark in 1986, aroused the suspicions by videotaping out the window of the train. Put under arrest by Israel’s security services, he told investigators that he had joined Hezbollah in July 2004, and arrived in Israel in December 2004 with a new passport that lacked any stamps indicating previous travel. For the purposes of his mission, he was given 2,000 dollars from his handlers.

Prior to his arrest, Al-Ashuah succeeded in enlisting two Israeli Arabs to the service of Hezbollah.