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The Ilan Grapel affair was an alleged Israeli espionage incident in Egypt involving dual U.S.-Israeli citizen Ilan Grapel. On 12 June 2011, Egyptian authorities arrested Grapel on charges of fomenting unrest in Egypt as a Mossad agent in the wake of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. While Israel and Grapel's friends and family firmly rejected the charges, the Egyptian government never provided evidence to support its claim and the arrest was widely ridiculed in Egypt itself. On October 25, 2011, Israel and Egypt agreed on the release of Grapel in exchange for 25 Egyptian prisoners held in Israeli jails. The exchange was executed on October 27, 2011, bringing an end to Grapel's nearly five months of imprisonment on dubious charges. ==Arrest and charges== Ilan Grapel, a 27-year-old man born in Queens with dual American and Israeli nationality, was arrested on 12 June 2011 by Egyptian authorities, who claimed that Grapel was sent to Egypt by Mossad to build a team that had been trying to gather information and data and to monitor the events of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. The authorities also claimed that Grapel tried to incite violence amongst Egyptian protesters with the goal of sparking a face-off with the military and spread chaos in the Egypt.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.newser.com/story/120869/egypt-accuses-american-of-spying-for-israel.html )〕 Friends and family of Grapel as well as the Israeli government adamantly rejected the espionage charges against Grapel and denied he had any connections to the Mossad. At the time of his arrest, Grapel was a rising third-year student at the Emory University School of Law. Grapel's friends and family said he went to Egypt for the summer to intern at Saint Andrew's Refugee Services, a non-government legal group that helps resettles refugees. Grapel had a longtime interest in Islam and the Middle East. He is trilingual, speaking English, Hebrew and Arabic. The Egyptian government never gave evidence to support its claims against Grapel, and even in Egypt, the arrest was widely ridiculed. In early October 2011, with reports increasingly indicating that Grapel would be released shortly, a senior Egyptian official admitted that Grapel was not a spy according to the London-based newspaper ''al-Hayat.'' The source stated, "what Grapel did during the revolution did not amount to spying and by this logic he can be released in exchange for financial benefits." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ilan Grapel affair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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