ISRAEL/JERUSALEM: ISRAEL ADMITS THAT IT KEPT THE JAILING OF AN ARMY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER ON SPYING CHARGES SECRET FROM THE PUBLIC

Record ID: 325038

  • Title: ISRAEL/JERUSALEM: ISRAEL ADMITS THAT IT KEPT THE JAILING OF AN ARMY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER ON SPYING CHARGES SECRET FROM THE PUBLIC
  • Date: 3rd June 1993
  • Summary: NEAR HAIFA AND TEL AVIV, ISRAEL/ JERUSALEM (JUNE 2, 1993) NEAR HAIFA, ISRAEL 1. GV/MV: BUILDING WHERE JAILED SPY MAJOR YOSEF AMIT LIVED/ DOOR TO APARTMENT 0.12 JERUSALEM 2. MV: GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE DIRECTOR URI DROMI COMMENT (ENGLISH) 0.37 TEL AVIV, ISRAEL 3. GV/TILT: UNITED STATES EMBASSY/ SATELLITE DISH OUTSIDE/ ANTENN
  • Embargoed: 18th June 1993 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TEL AVIV AND NEAR HAIFA, ISRAEL/ JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA7P2J88XD6BR8UFRBJQ0LY0V2Q
  • Story Text: Israel admitted on Wednesday (June 2) that an army intelligence officer has been in prison on spying charges since 1987 without the public knowing.

    Residents of the high rise building on Haifa's Blum Street where Major Yosef Amit had lived for years on the 13th floor were shocked to learn that he was a convicted spy.

    The Supreme Court has lifted a ban on reporting Amit's jailing, but the nation which he had worked for remained secret. His lawyer said it was not a hostile power.

    An army statement said that, during a secret trial in March 1987, Amit was convicted of spying, contact with a foreign agent and attempting to contact a foreign agent. He was sentenced to 12 years in jail. The Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the sentence in 1989.

    The army statement did not give the date of Amit's arrest.

    State media quoted two-year-old United States (U.S.) reports that an unidentified Israeli officer had been jailed for spying for the United States.

    The reports said Israel had offered to trade him for Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. citizen jailed in the United States in 1986 for spying for Israel.

    The director of the Israeli government's press office, Uri Dromi, declined to comment on the reports. He said the country for which Amit spied was being kept secret.


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