Last update - 00:00 12/10/2006
Israeli facing spy charges to appear in Nigerian court
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent and TheMarker
An Israeli arrested recently in Nigeria on espionage charges will appear in court Wednesday in the capital, Abuja, for a remand hearing.
TheMarker has learned that Eliav Hommossany, 46, represents Israeli companies in Nigeria. He works for companies owned by Brigadier General (res.) Shlomo Iliya and other Israeli partners. Hommossany has been operating in Nigeria for 20 years.
"I know of Hommossany's story, but I am not his employer. I work for the same company that he works for. The company is not mine, but owned by Nigerians," Iliya told TheMarker Wednesday.
The affair came to light two days ago when Hommossany and a number of other company employees were arrested and brought before the court. The media in Nigeria did not connect the story to an Israeli company; instead, according to reports, the men are accused of being in contact with three employees of the Nigerian Defense Ministry who were also arrested. They were found with secret documents that they did not have permission to be in possession of.
Nigerian sources emphasized that even though they are suspected of spying, the crimes are actually commercial. It seems that they were trying to obtain inside information on a number of tenders that the Defense Ministry will soon publish for the purchase of arms and equipment.
Iliya has been operating in Nigeria and a number of other West African nations, such as Equatorial Guinea, for a number of years. He has been linked to various other former Israeli generals who are also operating in the arms sector in the region, such as Avigdor Ben Gal and the present head of the Mossad, Meir Dagan, before he was appointed to his current job.
Ben Gal's name has been mentioned in another recent scandal in Nigeria, related to Israeli firm Aeronautics Ventures.