Israel to free 6 Egyptian prisoners after Tarabin's release

Israel has agreed to release six Egyptian prisoners after Cairo set free last week an Israeli convicted of espionage, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting that all of the prisoners were serving terms in Israeli jails for criminal offenses, and none of them was suspected of carrying out attacks against Israel. Three of them have finished their sentences, and the other three will be released before the end of their prison terms.

The move was announced in the wake of the release of Ouda Tarabin on Thursday. Tarabin, a citizen of Israel's Bedouin minority, was jailed in an Egyptian prison for 15 years on charges of spying for Israel.

Netanyahu said he personally spoke with three Egyptian presidents -- Hosni Mubarak, Mohamed Morsi and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi -- to request Tarabin's release. "I gave my word that he was not a spy for Israel," Netanyahu said.

About six months ago, Israel sent to Egypt an official representative, attorney Yitzhak Molcho, "in order to ensure that he would indeed be released on the scheduled day," Netanyahu said.

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.

He was welcomed in his village with a big celebration, and told local media that he feels that he is "not home yet; it all seems like a dream for me."

Meantime, Israel released two Egyptian citizens who served their sentences in Israeli prisons. Endit