The Daily Star - Lebanese dentist confesses to spying for Israel - February 28, 2011

BEIRUT: A man who was arrested last week on suspicion of spying for Israel confessed over the weekend to collaborating with the Jewish state, according to a statement from the Internal Security Forces (ISF).

Farouq Choucair, a 55-year-old dentist, was arrested by the ISF’s Information Branch in the southern village of Mais al-Jabal on suspicion of collaborating with Israel. He has since confessed that he worked for the Israeli intelligence services between 2004 and 2009 with the help of his brother, who had fled to Israel following its withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000, according to the statement.

Choucair’s brother was a member of the disbanded South Lebanon Army, which fought alongside Israel during its occupation of south Lebanon before May 2000. It was his brother who helped Choucair get in contact with an Israeli intelligence officer.

A judicial source told The Daily Star that the detainee’s wife and son were interrogated by the Information Branch Sunday.

The detainee confessed that he provided Israel with the coordinates of Hezbollah members and the party’s headquarters in Mais al-Jabal and surrounding areas.

He also provided Israel with the coordinates of Lebanese Army posts, mosques, schools, medical centers, public facilities and other places in his and nearby villages before and after Israel’s 2006 war against Lebanon.

Choucair was also provided with a phone that operates within the Israeli telecommunications network which he used to inform Israeli authorities about the movements of a specific Hezbollah MP and other officials from the party whenever he spotted them in Mais al-Jabal.

More than 150 individuals were arrested last year in a nationwide crackdown on those suspected of collaborating with Israel. Many of the detainees were high ranking army officers and senior employees in telecommunication companies. – The Daily Star