Lebanon asks Ukraine embassy to hand over suspected Mossad agent
Lebanon has asked Ukraine's Beirut embassy to hand over a man taking refuge there who is suspected of working with Israel's Mossad spy agency, a senior security official and a Hezbollah source told AFP.
Lebanon and Israel have officially been at war for decades, and Lebanese security services have arrested dozens of people on suspicion of working for Israel, many of whom were recruited online following the country's economic collapse beginning in 2019.
The Hezbollah source said it had detained a Syrian-Palestinian national, who also holds Ukrainian citizenship, in September after he parked a motorbike on a road leading to Beirut airport through the city's southern suburbs — where Hezbollah exercises a de facto security role.
The motorbike "was planted with an explosive device disguised as a battery," the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss security issues.
Hezbollah held the man until its war with Israel erupted earlier this month.
On March 6, Israel’s military struck a building in the southern suburbs next to where he was imprisoned, enabling him to escape to the Ukrainian embassy, the source added.
Lebanon’s General Security agency said it managed to arrest five alleged members of the group that had been working with the man and referred them to the judiciary.
Hassan Choukeir, head of General Security, told AFP that "the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon contacted us on March 10 requesting us to authorize its citizen… who was present there and had lost his passport, to leave through Beirut airport."
Source: Agence France Presse
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