According to a report published by Al-Akhbar, a news outlet affiliated with Hezbullah, Lebanese authorities arrested a Syrian doctor working for Mossad at Beirut Airport.
The arrest happened last month after intelligence was gathered by Lebanese authorities suggesting the doctor collected information and maps on water infrastructure and sewer networks in Syria, according to the report. The doctor posed as an employee for a fictitious company claiming to purify water in Syria. He has been accused of collecting intelligence significant to Israel’s security.
According to Al-Akhbar’s report, the doctor was also acting as an intermediary for Mossad, allegedly attempting to recruit his two brothers and father, who are officers in the Syrian Armed Forces. “Thousands of Euros” were offered to the potential recruits to collect security intel for Israel.
The Syrian doctor was reportedly born in 1969 in Latakia. He initially entered Syria through Lebanon on foot. Local authorities arrested the man after tracking his social media accounts, where messages displayed conversations with the doctor’s Israeli handlers and other intelligence officials in Israel.
According to the report, the doctor said during an interrogation that he heads a department in a hospital in Stockholm that requires frequent trips abroad for work. He went on to claim that he received an email in 2018 from a man going by the name “Cristopher” who offered him a role on the water purification project in Syria.
After multiple meetings in Stockholm, Damascus, and Prague, where the doctor was asked to collect intelligence on the water infrastructure in Syria, he met who he believed to be the project manager, a man living in Greece using the name “Paul.”
During the fourth meeting in Italy in 2019, “Paul” offered to bankroll a cement factory owned by the doctor’s father. He then started communicating with his dad and two brothers with the intent of recruiting them.
According to the report, communications slowly became less frequent in early 2020 following the COVID-19 outbreak. During the interrogation, the doctor noted that conversations strictly focused on water purification until the summer of 2020. From then on, the conversations between the doctor and his Israeli handlers started revolving around security.
