Israeli "spy" released from Egyptian prison after 15 years
Xinhua, December 10, 2015 Adjust font size:
Egypt has released an Arab citizen after jailing him for 15 years on charges of spying for Israel, a statement by Israeli prime minister's office said on Thursday.
Ouda Tarabin, a citizen of Israel's Bedouin minority, was released after finishing his sentence. He arrived in Israel at Thursday noon.
Meantime, Israel released two Egyptian citizens who finished serving their sentences in Israeli prisons, but did not identify them.
Tarabin was caught after he illegally crossed the border in 2000. He was 19 at the time, and a resident of a so-called unrecognized village, one of the dozens of Bedouin villages in the southern Negev Desert which Israel does not recognize their existence.
In 2013, he went on hunger strike, demanding Israel to put pressure on Egypt to free him. In a letter to the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Tarabin said Israel has "violated its legal and moral obligation regarding my rights and my freedom." Endit