Israel frees 6 Egyptians in exchange for Israeli spy

12/5/2004 7:12:00 PM GMT

Israel released six Egyptian students, arrested in August, in exchange for an Arab-Israeli businessman who was detained for spying in Egypt in 1997, Egyptian security sources said on Sunday.

One source said on condition of anonymity that "the handovers will take place simultaneously," referring to the exchange of prisoners.

The Egyptian state newspaper Al Ahram said that the Israeli government agreed to free the six Egyptian students when Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman visited Israel last week.

Israel arrested the six students in August near the desert border between the two countries for crossing into Israel illegally. Israeli prosecutors charged that the students had planned to abduct Israeli troops to use them as bargaining chips for Palestinian detainees.

Parents of the students have said that their sons had no political views and had traveled to Israel mainly to search for jobs.

Al-Ahram named the students as Emad Sayed, Mohamed Yusri, Mustafa Mahmoud Youssef, Mustafa Abu Deif, Mahmoud Gamal Ezzat and Mohamed Maher. All aged between 21 and 25.

The sources said that the six students were taken to the Egyptian consulate in Tel Aviv and their families expected them to arrive in Cairo later on Sunday. It was not clear how they would travel from Tel Aviv.

In Jerusalem, Israeli cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit said that he didn’t know about a possible release of the Israeli-Arab businessman, Azzam Azzam, but hoped it would happen.

"I hope that the warming situation between Israel and Egypt will create gestures from both sides. I hope that one of the gestures will be the release of ... Azzam Azzam. It will be a very good and warm gesture from Egypt," he said.

Israel has been demanding the release of Azzam, who is a member of Israel’s minority Druze community, since he was sentenced by the state security court in Cairo to 15 years in jail in August 1997.

Azzam, an Israeli textiles worker, was convicted of collaborating with the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, to send news about Egyptian industrial cities.

Another Egyptian, Emad Abdel-Hamid Ismail, was also sentenced to 25 years in prison. Two other fugitive Israeli Arab females were sentenced in their absence.

A swap of prisoners would mark the most vivid sign of improved relations since Egypt removed its ambassador from Israel in 2000 after the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada or uprising.

Israel and Egypt signed a peace accord in 1979.