New York Times: Man on Trial in Cyprus Admits He's Hizbullah Member

A man on trial in Cyprus admitted Wednesday to being a member of Hizbullah, “acting as a courier for the group inside the European Union and staking out locations Israelis would frequent -- in particular a parking lot behind a Limassol hospital and a hotel called the Golden Arches,” the New York Times reported.

“In written testimony read out loud in Greek by his interpreter, the man said that he had not taken part in a plot to target Israeli tourists visiting Cyprus, as prosecutors charge,” the U.S. newspaper said.

“Even if they asked me to participate in a terrorist action I would refuse. I could never do that,” the New York Times quoted Hossam Taleb Yaacoub as saying. “I’m only trained to defend Lebanon.”

According to the newspaper, he was arrested 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 motorcycle,” the New York Times added.

The prosecution and the defense have both declined to comment before a verdict is reached, sometime in March, it said.

“Mr. Yaacoub, who has both Swedish and Lebanese passports, said that he had been a member of Hizbullah since 2007, and worked for the group for four years. He also owned a trading company in Lebanon. He had visited Cyprus in 2008 but first came for business in December 2011. Though he traded in shoes, clothing and wedding goods, he was interested in branching out into importing juice,” the New York Times added.

“It was unclear from his testimony exactly how he got involved with the man he called Ayman. He said that he had been on 'previous missions with Hizbullah,' in Antalya, on Turkey’s southwest coast; Lyon, France; and Amsterdam,” said the U.S. newspaper.

The suspect was arrested in a Limassol hotel room on July 7 after flying in from London's Heathrow, according to Agence France Presse.

Police suspect he was in Cyprus to track movements of Israeli tourists and find out when group tours arrived on the holiday island.

Reports say his arrest followed a tip-off from foreign intelligence agencies, including Israel's Mossad.