BICOM

Ouda Tarabin, a Bedouin citizen of Israel accused by Egypt of spying, returned home yesterday after having been incarcerated for 15 years in an Egyptian prison.

Tarabin was born in the Sinai Peninsula in 1981, but when Israel withdrew from Sinai the following year as part of the 1979 peace agreement with Egypt, Tarabin’s family moved to southern Israel and received Israeli citizenship. Tarabin was arrested in 2000, after crossing the border into Sinai illegally, apparently to visit his sister who still lived in the Sinai town of el-Arish. Egypt did not admit to holding Tarabin until 2004 when it was revealed that he had been tried in absentia and sentenced to a 15-year prison sentence for spying for Israel. It is an allegation which both Tarabin and Israel have always denied.

During the subsequent years, Israeli leaders and diplomats have consistently raised Tarabin’s case with Egyptian officials and some reports indicate that Israel previously offered a prisoner exchange to secure Tarabin’s release.

Tarabin was finally released yesterday and travelled back to Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal envoy Isaac Molcho. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said that at the same time as Tarabin returning home, “Israel has released two Egyptian prisoners who were imprisoned in Israel who have finished their sentences.” It is not known who the Egyptian prisoners are and it is reported that four additional Egyptians will also be released. Their release is most likely an attempt to satisfy Egyptian public opinion over Tarabin’s release.

Netanyahu met Tarabin on his return and said, “Welcome home. We held lengthy talks with the Egyptians for years, and we’re happy to see you with us now. I said that we’ll get you back here and this is what has happened. Now you can start over again.” Tarabin returned to his family in Rahat and told reporters “I feel like I’m in a dream … I don’t believe it. To return after 15 years is a lot.”