Lawyer: Cyprus Attack Plan Suspect Admits Hezbollah Ties, Denies Plotting Attacks on Israelis

Photo Credit: acrollNICOSIA, Cyprus — A man being tried on allegations he planned attacks on Israeli tourists in Cyprus has admitted being a member of the militant group Hezbollah and staking out locations that such visitors frequent, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Hossam Taleb Yaacoub’s admissions follow accusations that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah was behind a bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israeli tourists. Authorities here have been reluctant to link the Cyprus case to the attack in Bulgaria, but both have fed concerns about militant activity in Europe.

Lawyer Antonis Georgiades noted that Yaacoub, who is Swedish and Lebanese, told a Cyprus court that he came to this country on business with no plan to harm anyone. But Yaacoub, 24, also admitted that an unidentified man in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based, gave him the “mission” of recording flight arrivals and bus routes of Israeli tourists and checking out a hospital parking lot.

Georgiades said Yaacoub acted alone in Cyprus and that instructions where given to him “in complete secrecy” by a man whose face he couldn’t see. The lawyer said that while his client’s actions may raise suspicions, there is no hard proof that Yaacoub was planning an attack.

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