Ouda Tarabin ( ar, عودة ترابين, he, עודה תראבין; born in 1981) is an Israeli

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

who was imprisoned in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

for 15 years on suspicion of spying for Israel after illegally crossing the Israeli-Egyptian border. Tarabin, then aged 19, was arrested in 2000 after he illegally crossed the border from Israel (his brother suggests he went over to visit his sister in El-Arish). Illegal border crossings by the

residents of Israel and Egypt are not a rarity; Israel also occasionally arrests Egyptian crossers, who are returned over the border after a short interrogation. Ouda had previously crossed into Egypt; after his return to Israel, he was tried ''in absentia'' on charges of spying for Israel by an Egyptian military court. The stated basis of the prosecution was testimony given by Ouda's Egyptian cousin, Eid Suleiman, who was arrested for similar charges in 1999. The trial was conducted under Egypt's 1981 emergency law, granting police sweeping powers of arrest. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. When Ouda was arrested after again crossing into Egypt in 2000, he was informed of his trial and sentence, and that his father had been similarly sentenced in absentia to 25 years for espionage. Ouda, therefore, had no chance of defending himself in person. According to his family, he had done nothing wrong other than cross into Egypt without the proper documentation. Tarabin was incarcerated in a

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

prison, in the same cell which

Azzam Azzam Azzam Azzam ( ar, عزام عزام, Levantine Arabic: , he, עזאם עזאם; born 1962) is an Israeli Druze who was convicted in Egypt of spying for Israel, and jailed for eight years. He maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal. Arrest ...

was once held in.

Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...

MK Ayoob Kara met with Tarabin's family to work to secure his release. In May 2012, it was reported that Israeli officials were conducting secret negotiations with Egypt, and were discussing the possibility of releasing all 83 Egyptians incarcerated in Israeli prisons in exchange for Tarabin. In 2013, Tarabin went on hunger strike in protest of his imprisonment. In December 2015, Tarabin was released from prison.

References

External links

* (Hebrew
The blog of Yitzchak Meltzer (Ouda's Israeli lawyer)
* (German
The German Middle East magazine zenith
1981 births Living people Arab citizens of Israel Egypt–Israel relations {{Israel-bio-stub

See also

References

External links