Report: Lebanese man charged with spying for Israel

Lebanon has indicted one of its citizens for spying for Israel since 1990, the pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat reported Thursday. Osama Berri, 54, is accused of having had contact with the enemy during wartime.

Berri was arrested on November 18 in southern Lebanon, where he resides. According to Al Hayat, he has admitted to being in contact with Israeli intelligence for the past 19 years.

The paper says Berri's handler was formerly an officer of the Southern Lebanon Army, a now defunct militia allied to Israel until it withdrew its military from southern Lebanon in mid-2000, who had fled to Israel at the time of the pullout. The handler, the report claims, asked Beri for information on Hezbollah's activities in his local area.

The report describes a special "bag" supplied to Berri by Israeli intelligence, containing equipment for gathering information. The papers says that Berri's handlers asked him to get rid of the bag after Lebanon exposed espionage rings in the country during the past 12 months.

Lebanese prosecution sources say the crimes ascribed to Berri are likely to result in a death sentence.

	The Israel-Lebanon border
	Photo by: (Reuters)