...

Journalist linked to espionage case back in Israel for questioning

Israel Materials 25 October 2010 03:24 (UTC +04:00)
A journalist who published information based on classified documents leaked by a former Israeli army soldier arrived in Israel Sunday and will be interrogated in the next 48 hours, dpa reported.
Journalist linked to espionage case back in Israel for questioning

A journalist who published information based on classified documents leaked by a former Israeli army soldier arrived in Israel Sunday and will be interrogated in the next 48 hours, dpa reported.

Uri Blau, a journalist with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, received top-secret information from an ex-Israeli soldier and wrote several articles based on the nearly 2,000 documents stolen from the army.

The articles denounced the allegedly illegal actions of the Israeli Army in the occupied West Bank.

Blau was in London when the case was publicized by Israeli media and the ex-soldier, Anat Kam, 23, was arrested. Over the last six months he has refused to come back to Israel.

Blau finally arrived Sunday after agreeing to a joint interrogation by police and internal Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet. He must also declare that he is no longer in possession of any of the stolen documents.

Kam has been accused of photocopying and scanning 2,000 classified documents during her compulsory military service in the army's central command and of passing them onto the journalist.

Central command includes the West Bank in its operations and some 700 of the documents were classified as "top secret."

The Shin Bet has also accused Kam of copying information on the army's order of battle, intelligence operations and weapons systems.

The intelligence agency believes that the case represented a real danger to soldiers and civilians, and the potential damage to Israeli security was "extremely serious."

Latest

Latest