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US-Israeli alleged spy leaves Egypt by plane, not land, in swap 25 Egyptians celebrate as they cross the border home from jail in Israel on Thursday, while the alleged Israeli spy Ilan Grapel leaves via Cairo Airport, not Sinai, for security reasons
Israel swapped 25 jailed Egyptians - some convicted of smuggling - for Ilan Grapel, 27, who was detained in Egypt in June on accusations he was out to recruit agents and monitor events in the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak, an ally of Israel and the United States. Israel, whose relations with Egypt have been strained since the popular uprising last January against ousted president Mubarak, denied the charges. Israeli officials said Grapel had been released and was flying to Tel Aviv out of Cairo International airport, not the TabaEgypt-Israel border crossing in Sinai, for security reasons.. Many of the freed Egyptians knelt to pray before boarding a coach to cross into their homeland. "Raise up your heads, you are Egyptian," cried relatives waving the country's red, white and black flag as the coach crossed the border. "I've been in jail since 2005. Thank God. I feel reborn," Mursi Barakat told Egyptian state television. "The treatment in jail was very tough and it was clear there was discrimination." Rabia Suleiman, who was serving a four-year jail term on drugs charges, was asked by the same station what he would do on his return: "I'll come here and find any job, and I won't go back." The United States, which provides the army that now runs Egypt with billions of dollars in military aid, had called for Grapel's release. Analysts said the exchange provided a cover for Egypt to resolve the diplomatic headache. "I consider it a cover for returning this spy with pressure from the United States," Egyptian analyst Hassan Nafaa said. "The release of those 25 represents a cover that has no meaning in fact. It does not harm Israel and it does not significantly benefit Egyptians," he added. Many of those detained by Israel were convicted of smuggling offences. The US-brokered exchange deal was reached shortly after a more high-profile, Egyptian-brokered swap between Israel and Hamas Islamists that freed captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. US Congressman Gary Ackerman, who pressed for Grapel's release, travelled to Israel to accompany him back to the United States, his office said in a statement. "It is ... hard for me to accept the fact that an innocent and perhaps naive citizen travels (to Egypt) to identify with the Arab Spring -- and it's clear this is not a spy, nor an agent, nor a drug trafficker -- and he is arrested under all kinds of false allegations, and we are then forced to pay a price in order to free him," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel's Army Radio. DRUGS AND GUNS The family of one of those to be released, Ashraf Abdallah el-Swarky, said the 18-year-old had been sentenced to three years in prison by Israel on charges of illegally crossing the border. They say he had lost his way. He has spent one year in jail. "We just want to see our brother. It is a good thing from Egypt to work on freeing them," said his brother, Mohamed. Others in the area said many of the Egyptian prisoners to be released had been involved in smuggling, which is rife along Egypt's border with Israel and the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Israel's Prisons Service said Abdallah had been jailed for drug trafficking as well as "infiltration". The others on the release roster were held for similar offences, including gun-running, but not for espionage or attacks on Israelis. Grapel's mother has said that her son, a law student in the United States, had been working for Saint Andrew's Refugee Services, a non-governmental organisation, in Cairo. Grapel emigrated to Israel in 2005 from New York and served in its military in the 2006 Lebanon war. Over the years, Egypt has arrested a number of people accused of spying for Israel.
