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Europe

Cyprus Court Upholds Hezbollah Man's Conviction

2014-03-21

[Ynet] Hossam Taleb Yaacoub was convicted of helping to plan attacks against Israelis, though none came into fruition. The lawyer for an admitted Hezbollah member said Thursday a Cyprus appeals court has upheld his client's conviction for helping to plan attacks against Israelis on Cyprus. Hossam Taleb Yaacoub had denied involvement in plots against Israelis and said he didn't know what the information he collected for the Hezbollah bad boy group was for. He was found guilty last year on five of eight charges including participation in a criminal organization and handed down a 4-year prison sentence. No Israelis were attacked. His lawyer, Antonis Georgiades, said the three-judge appeals ruling came Wednesday. The lone dissenting judge found that the evidence didn't support the charges against the Swedish-Lebanese citizen beyond a reasonable doubt and that his actions didn't prove Hezbollah to be a criminal organization, Georgiades said. Yaacoub told the court last year he had collected information on Israeli tourists visiting the island, but denied plotting to attack them. The 24-year-old said he had been asked to log information on Israeli flight arrivals in Cyprus and jot down the number plates of buses carrying tourists from the Jewish state. He said he was unaware what the information was for and was placed in durance vile Please don't kill me! in July 2012 before he could communicate the information to a handler, whom he did not know, in Leb. The court said Hezbollah had ordered him to carry out six missions on Cyprus since December 2011, and that he was paid a total of 4,800 dollars by the powerful Shiite terror group. It said the accused contacted Hezbollah through various Internet cafes in different towns. In his testimony, Yaacoub denied planning any attack, but did admit to being in Hezbollah for the past four years while also insisting he worked solely in its political branch.

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Europe

Report Warns Of Hezbollah, Iran Threats In Balkans

2013-04-12

[Jpost] Experts say weak local security, law enforcement in Balkan states lead to threats against Israeli, Jewish populations. A leading Balkan-based website covering the region's politics published in late March a comprehensive study on Israeli-Balkan relations and the threat of Hezbollah, along with its chief sponsor Iran. "While the Israelis are, of course, concerned by the occasional manifestations of neo-Nazism, they are currently focusing on Hezbollah -- and behind it, Iran -- as the main potential threat to their own interests. Israeli diplomats, tourists and local Jewish populations are all regarded as potential targets. In contrast to the case with Balkan-Sunni thugs, however, relatively little research has been published on Hezbollah in the Balkans today," wrote Chris Deliso, the author of the study. The new report, titled "Israeli security concerns and the Balkans," was published on the website Balkanalysis.com. His investigation is based on interviews with leading Israeli counterterrorism experts. Dr. Ely Karmon, senior research scholar at the International Institute for Counter- Terrorism in Herzliya, was quoted in the study as saying that "there is a clear pattern. Iran begins [in small countries] with diplomatic relations, investment promises and cultural relations. But all Iranian diplomatic and cultural activities carried out are under the control of their intelligence services." "For Iran, the Balkans is a good platform for two reasons. First, countries like Bosnia have already been long penetrated. Second, the local security and law enforcement are not sufficiently prepared for an adversary like Iran," he continued. The study cited the cases of Hezbollah's involvement in Bulgaria and Cyprus, and noted that Hezbollah operatives traveled with passports from Western European countries, permitting greater latitude for avoiding suspicion from the local authorities. Bulgarian former interior minister Tsvetan Tvetanov reiterated his claims in Brussels on Thursday that the bombing of an Israeli tour bus last July in Burgas, Bulgaria, was the work of Hezbollah. "We can make a grounded assumption that the turban wing of Hezbollah is the criminal mastermind and perpetrator of the terrorist act in Burgas," said Tvetanov, according to the Standart, a Bulgarian daily. The bombing resulted in the deaths of five Israelis, a Bulgarian national and one of the three suspected Hezbollah operatives. Meanwhile, ...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind... a Cypriot court last month convicted Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a self-confessed member of Hezbollah, of plotting to murder Israelis. He was sentenced to a four-year prison term. Yossi Melman, a veteran Israeli journalist on intelligence and strategic affairs who wrote for Haaretz and now contributes to The Jerusalem Report, told Deliso, "Israeli agencies know that Iran's MOIS [Ministry of Intelligence and Security] and the Quds Force [a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for foreign operations] have established sleeper cells of agents and they try to locate weak links in the European chain. One such a weak link is the Balkans." The report noted that local conditions in the Balkans make for "an attractive target for Hezbollah and Iran," according to Melman, and that "the decision to expand the Israeli diplomatic presence [in the Balkans] is a by-product of budgetary reasons, economic potential and yes, also the desire to challenge and stand up to Iran and Hezbollah terrorism." The study cited the journalist as stating that "excellent cooperation" exists between Israel and local Balkan intelligence services. He added that those agencies that "lack technological capacities and are weak in analysis, and certainly in monitoring outside elements like Iran -- here enter the CIA and the Mossad to help them. The Burgas inquiry is a good example of such an international cooperation, combining local and international knowledge and understanding," he said. Discussions are under way among the 27 European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... member nations to ban Hezbollah because of the Cyprus and Bulgarian cases.

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Europe

Cyprus Court Gives Hizbullah Man 4 Years over 'Anti-Israel Plot'

2013-03-29

[An Nahar] A Cyprus court sentenced a self-confessed Hizbullah member on Thursday to four years in jail after he was convicted of involvement in a plot to attack Israeli interests on the island. The official Cyprus News Agency said the criminal court in the south coast city of Limassol sentenced Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a dual Lebanese and Swedish citizen, to four years minus time already served in prison since last July. He was found guilty on March 22 on five counts -- including participating in a criminal organization, taking part in a criminal act and money laundering. Yaacoub, 24, told the court last month that he had collected information on Israeli tourists visiting the island, but denied plotting to attack them. He said he had been asked to log information on Israeli flight arrivals and note down the number plates of buses carrying tourists from the Jewish state. Yaacoub said he was unaware what the information was for and was tossed in the clink ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in July last year before he could communicate the information to a handler, whom he did not know, in Leb. On Thursday he made no outward show of emotion after the sentence was passed, and before being led out of the courtroom under armed guard. "There is no doubt that these are serious offenses because by committing them, at the very least it potentially jeopardized the safety of Israeli citizens and targets on the territory of the Cyprus Republic," the court ruled. "Even if the targets were not carried out, it still harms the security of citizens and the legal system, whose guardian is the court," it added. Before passing sentence the court did take into consideration the fact that Yaacoub had cooperated with police and that he had been supposedly recruited by Hizbullah at the age of 19. In mitigation, his defense lawyer said Yaacoub did not carry out any violent act and has a clean criminal record. He also did not transport or carry guns or explosives.

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Europe

Cyprus Convicts Hizbullah Man over anti-Israel Plot

2013-03-22

[An Nahar] A Cypriot court on Thursday found guilty a self-confessed Hizbullah militant who had been accused of involvement in a plot to attack Israeli interests on the Mediterranean island. Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a dual Lebanese and Swedish citizen arrested in the port of Limassol in July last year, was found guilty on five counts -- including participating in a criminal organization, taking part in a criminal act and money laundering. "Any logical explanation that could present these actions as innocent ones is completely lacking," judges in the Limassol criminal court said "Any logical explanation that could present these actions as innocent ones is completely lacking," judges in the Limassol criminal court said in an 80-page decision on how they reached their verdict. "The purpose of Hizbullah in connection with the actions of the accused, constitute a criminal organization in this regard... based on the specific actions of the accused in Cyprus," the decision added. The 24-year-old said he had been asked to log information on Israeli flight arrivals in Cyprus and jot down the number plates of buses carrying tourists from the Jewish state. He said he was unaware what the information was for. Yaacoub, who faces a sentence of up to 14 years in prison, was however cleared of three charges pertaining to conspiracy to commit a crime because they were covered by the other offences. The court will reconvene on March 28 to hear mitigating arguments and for sentencing. Yaacoub told the court last month he had collected information on Israeli tourists visiting the island, but denied plotting to attack them. The 24-year-old said he had been asked to log information on Israeli flight arrivals in Cyprus and jot down the number plates of buses carrying tourists from the Jewish state. He said he was unaware what the information was for and was arrested last July before he could communicate the information to a handler, whom he did not know, in Lebanon.

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Europe

Swedish and Dutch experts call for action against Hezbollah

2013-02-25

Rolled over from yesterday because it was posted late in the day. -- trailing wife Since Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a Lebanese-Swedish man, confessed to membership in Hezbollah last week in a Cypriot criminal court proceeding, close observers of the radical Islamic group have been warning of new dangers if the group is not sanctioned. "Terrorism is terrorism. But where it concerns the terrorist organization Hezbollah, Europe has been, and still is, a giant ostrich," Wim Kortenoeven, a former Dutch MP and one of the Netherland's leading Middle East experts, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "I fear that the European citizens are going to pay a very heavy price for this dangerous policy." Kortenoeven added that Hezbollah and its terrorist Iranian masters are not only the enemies of the Jewish people and the Jewish State, but also of Europe and Western civilization as a whole.

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Europe

Hezbollah Agent Gathered Data On Israel Flights

2013-02-23

[Jpost] Cyprus bomb plot suspect testifies that he was told to record landing times; NYT: Hezbollah paid Yaacoub $600 per month. The man is singing like a bird. Going home after all this is probably not an option -- could it be that secretly he worked for Mossad all along? They're sly like that, you know. Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, one of the suspects in a thwarted terrorist attack against Israelis in Cyprus in July, said on Friday that he was sent to record the time of arrival of flights from Israel, Army Radio reported. According to the report, Yaacoub testified in court on Thursday that he was told by his superiors to document the landing times of flights from Israel. The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported the Cyprus bomb-plot suspect was payed "$600 per month since 2010" by Hezbollah. The Times quoted a written testimony read before the court where Yaacoub described acting as a courier for the group in Turkey, La Belle France and the Netherlands. Providing a rare insight into the operations of the Lebanese cut-thoat group, Yaacoub said that if his handler wished to contact him, he would send a message "about the weather," The Times reported. "I work for my party," Yaacoub said. "Whenever they asked me to do something, I delivered," The Times quoted his testimony as stating. Yaacoub was also given the code name "Wael," The Times reported, quoting the bomb-plot suspect as saying that "in general, the party is based on secrecy between members. We don't know the real names of our fellow members." The bomb-plot suspect said that as a member of Hezbollah, he had the right to refuse to participate in terrorist operations, The Times reported. "If I was asked to participate in attacks, I had the right to refuse," he said. On Thursday, President Shimon Peres called on the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... to place Hezbollah on its list of terror organizations. Peres said it was time for every organization, particularly the EU, to list Hezbollah as a terrorist group. "In Syria the president is slaughtering his own people and the children of his country," Peres said, looking to the northeast. "Close by, in Leb, [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, wearing the robe of the religious, is pushing Leb toward war, even though Leb has no enemies." Yaacoub, a 24-year old Lebanese-Swedish citizen, faces eight charges in the criminal court in the city of Limassol. The Cypriot authorities charged him with membership in a criminal organization whose aim is "carrying out missions in any part of the world, including the Cyprus Republic, against Israeli citizens," among seven other crimes -- reduced from an original 17 terrorism-related charges. The Cypriot prosecution began its cross-examination of Yaacoub on Thursday, and the case may run until March 7, with a verdict anticipated in mid-March.

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Europe

Hezbollah man denies attack plot in Cyprus

2013-02-22

[FRANCE24] A self-confessed Hezbollah militant told a court in Cyprus Thursday that he had collected information on Israeli tourists visiting the east Mediterranean island but denied plotting to attack them. "Lies! All lies!" Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a dual Lebanese and Swedish citizen arrested in the port of Limassol in July last year, faces eight charges including conspiracy to commit a crime and participating in a criminal organisation. "These accusations are baseless. I conspired with no one to commit any crime," he said during cross-examination at Limassol criminal court on Thursday, local media reported. "I was given instruction to collect information. That's what I did." "How you can claim that's 'conspiracy' is beyond me!" Yaacoub said he was asked to log information on Israeli flight arrivals to Cyprus and jot down bus number plates carrying tourists from the Jewish state. He said he did not know what the information was for and was arrested last July before he could communicate the information to a handler, whom he did not know, in Lebanon. Cyprus is becoming ever more popular for Israeli tourists, As opposed to Mauritania... with arrivals in 2012 increasing 23.5 percent to 39,420. In testimony read on Wednesday Yaacoub denied planning any attack, but did admit to being in Hezbollah for the past four years while also insisting that he worked solely in the group's political branch. He also apparently believes there is a difference... The defendant said he received orders from a masked Hezbollah operative called Ayman ...also from the political branch... and was told to stake out hotels on Cyprus, including in Limassol and Ayia Napa. Cyprus police have refused to comment publicly, calling the case a "sensitive political issue." Shortly after Yaacoub's arrest, five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian driver were killed in a bus bombing at an airport in Bulgaria, the deadliest attack on Israelis abroad since 2004, which Israel blamed on Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. At Wednesday's hearing, Yaacoub was unable to answer questions about a red notebook containing the registration numbers of tourist buses he had with him at the time of his arrest. He said he had received weapons and acted as a courier for the political branch of Hezbollah in Europe, delivering packages whose contents he said he was unaware of, to the French city of Lyon, to Amsterdam and to Antalya in southwest Turkey.

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Europe

Cyprus Bomb-Plot Suspect Admits Hezbollah Ties

2013-02-21

[Jpost] Lebanese-Swede accused of July terror plot against Israeli tourists in Cyprus sheds light on Hezbollah activities in court testimony. Lots of hyphenated Lebanese lads getting in trouble all of a sudden... Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, one of the suspects in a thwarted terrorist attack against Israelis in Cyprus in July, admitted on Wednesday in court that he is a member of Hezbollah. Yaacoub, a 24-year old Lebanese-Swedish citizen, faces eight charges in the criminal court in the city of Limassol. The Cypriot authorities charged him with membership in a criminal organization whose aim is "carrying out missions in any part of the world, including the Cyprus Republic, against Israeli citizens," among seven other crimes -- reduced from an original 17 terrorism-related charges. The Jerusalem Post has learned that Yaacoub said under oath on Wednesday that while he came to Cyprus without Hezbollah connections, he met with an operative named Ayman from the Lebanese terrorist group. Yaacoub said he knew how to use weapons but that the purpose of his visit to Cyprus was business. It is unclear if Yaacoub's meeting with the Hezbollah operative took place in Cyprus, Leb or Sweden. The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported on Wednesday that Yaacoub told the court, "I never saw the face of Ayman because he was always wearing a mask," and that Ayman picked Yaacoub up in a van. Yaacoub conducted surveillance of places where Israelis would visit, including a "parking lot behind a Limassol hospital and a hotel called the Golden Arches," the Times reported. Magnus Ranstorp, a Hezbollah expert at Sweden's National Defense College, told the Post on Tuesday that Hezbollah uses "talent scouting" to recruit operatives for its activities abroad. Though Hezbollah had no "overt presence" in Sweden, he said, its members from Sweden keep "popping up regularly." Last year, Thai authorities charged Atris Hussein, a Hezbollah operative and a Swedish-Lebanese citizen, with planning to use explosives to strike against American and Israeli citizens. The Cypriot prosecution is slated to cross-examine Yaacoub on Thursday, and the case may run until March 7, with a verdict anticipated in mid-March. "I'm only trained to defend Leb," the Times quoted Yaacoub as saying. It noted that "he was jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! in July with the license plates of buses ferrying Israelis written in a small red notebook." He "said that he wrote them down because one of the license numbers, LAA- 505, reminded him of a Lamborghini sports car, while the other, KWK-663, reminded him of a Kawasaki cycle of violence," the Times wrote. The Cypriot paper Simerini reported last week that Yaacoub "apologized" for his role in the planned attack. According to the Greek-language newspaper's report, Yaacoub's attorney asked for a week-long postponement of the trial in order to prepare in writing the avowed apology of his client. The court determined that there is evidence for a prima facie case against Yaacoub. La Belle France, Germany and Sweden have resisted including Hezbollah in the EU terror list, but a conviction in Cyprus might be a tipping point toward sanctioning the Lebanese militia. Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov announced earlier this month that Hezbollah operatives were responsible for the July kaboom in Burgas that killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver, which occurred several weeks after Yaacoub's arrest. Tsvetanov announced the two suspected Burgas perpetrators "were members of the beturbanned goon wing of Hezbollah," and added that Sherlocks have found information "showing the financing and connection between Hezbollah and the two suspects." The suspects in the Burgas case observed the Black sea resort town -- a popular destination for Israeli vacationers -- from late June to July 18, when the attack took place. Yaacoub is believed to have engaged in a similar method of surveillance of Israeli tourists in Cyprus. Yaacoub is not married and lived in the Swedish town of Lidköping, where his father runs a pottery business. The Post could not confirm a report that when Yaacoub was arrested he was studying journalism in Leb. Ranstorp told the Post there was a pattern by Hezbollah "to use individuals to bypass Israeli security," citing the example of the two Burgas bombing suspects using Australian and Canadian passports to enter Bulgaria and plan their terrorist attack. "Hezbollah and Iran are two sides of the same coin," Ranstorp said. "They form a nexus, sometimes more overt, sometimes less. That Hezbollah is involved in terrorism with Iranian intelligence is what makes them so dangerous. One should not take them lightly," he said. "With Burgas, Hezbollah has crossed a rubicon," because the attack was on European soil, said Ranstorp, adding that "now it is easy to close the door on Hezbollah" because there have been too many such incidents. Also, two pages of details from the New York Times, including this tidbit: Mr. Yaacoub’s testimony offered unaccustomed insights from an active Hezbollah member into the militant group’s secret operations. But it carried potentially greater significance for the European Union, which has thus far resisted following Washington’s lead in declaring the group a terrorist organization. Experts say that a conviction here would substantially raise the pressure on the bloc for such a designation. “Foreign ministries around Europe are watching this quite closely because many Europeans, particularly the Germans, have laid such a stress on courtroom evidence being the basis for a designation,” said Daniel Benjamin, until December the top counterterrorism official at the State Department, who visited Cyprus last year after the arrest.

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Europe

Lebanese Man Pleads Not Guilty to Cyprus Plot

2012-10-06

[An Nahar] A Lebanese man accused of plotting an attack on Israeli tourists in Cyprus pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." on Friday before a criminal court in the southern city of Limassol, court sources said. Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, who was enjugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! in the southern resort city some three months ago, appeared before the court under tight security. The trial had been due to start in mid-September, but was delayed after the prosecution changed the charges against the suspect, reducing the original 17 charges down to eight and prompting requests for clarification from the defense. Initially, police said the 24-year-old, who also holds a Swedish passport, was to be tried on terrorism charges, but these have since been changed to conspiracy and consent to commit a crime, and belonging to an unnamed criminal organization. The charges refer to two visits he made to Cyprus in November 2011 and July 2012, when police suspect he was tracking the movements and planned arrival times of Israeli tourists on the holiday island. The court agreed that Yaacoub should remain in jug until the next hearing on October 25. Cyprus police have refused to comment publicly on the case, describing it as a "sensitive political issue" but did say Sherlocks have found no evidence to suggest he had any accomplices. The suspect was reportedly enjugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! in a Limassol hotel room on July 7 after flying in from London's Heathrow. Reports said he was enjugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! after a tip-off from foreign intelligence agencies, including Israel's Mossad spy service. Cyprus bolstered security for Israeli interests on the island following a July 18 suicide kaboom in Bulgaria that killed six people, five of them Israeli tourists.

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