Israel to free 25 Egyptians in prisoner swap

Israel will release 25 Egyptian prisoners in exchange for a man with dual US-Israeli nationality who was imprisoned in Egypt on espionage suspicions, the Israeli prime minister's office has said in a statement.

Ilan Grapel was arrested in Cairo on June 12 and has been held without charge since. Egypt's state TV confirmed that a deal was made and said the swap would be carried out on Thursday.

Grapel, 27, was suspected by Egyptian officials of spying for Israel during the height of Egypt's uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's presidency earlier this year.

Israel and his relatives in the US denied Grapel was a spy, saying he worked for a Cairo legal aid project. The Israeli government will convene a special security cabinet meeting on Tuesday to approve the deal, the statement from Binyamin Netanyahu's office said.

The list of prisoners included in the deal will be published so that Israelis would be able to appeal. The swap can take place 48 hours after the prisoners' names are made public.

"In the framework of Israel and Egyptian efforts and with the help of the United States, Egypt has agreed to release Ilan Grapel. Israel has agreed to release 25 Egyptian prisoners," the statement said.

The statement said there are no "security prisoners" on the list, Israeli shorthand for fighters.

It is assumed that the Egyptians to be freed are mostly smugglers working the porous border between the two countries, sneaking into Israel with contraband and people seeking asylum or work.

Among the 25 Egyptian prisoners to be exchanged will be three teenagers from the Sinai Peninsula, according to Egyptian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because no statement was made.

Prisoner exchange Last week Egypt was instrumental in mediating a deal that won freedom for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier who was captured in 2006 by Hamas.

Under that deal, Israel freed 455 Palestinian prisoners and is set to free the rest in two months. Some were convicted in deadly attacks against Israelis, including involvement with suicide bombings.

Israeli officials said Grapel's release is not connected to the Palestinian prisoner swap. They were speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Grapel moved to Israel, where his grandparents live, as a young man and did his military service during the 2006 war between the Israel and Lebanon, where he was wounded.

Israeli news websites have published what they identified as wartime pictures of Grapel lying in his hospital bed. Grapel later returned to the US for law school. His father, Daniel Grapel, spoke briefly to Israel's Channel 10 TV from his home in New York Monday evening.

"I haven't been officially notified, but I do know that things are happening between the US, Egyptian, and Israeli governments," he said.

Grapel graduated from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in international studies and was planning to return to Emory for his third and final year of law studies.

Since Mubarak's overthrow, the country's military rulers have often warned against what they call "foreign" attempts to destabilisthe country.


Aljazeera