LIMASSOL, CYPRUS – A man on trial admitted on Wednesday to being a member of the militant group Hezbollah, acting as a courier for the group inside the European Union and staking out locations that Israelis would frequent.
Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, 24, described how he would be picked up in a van to meet with his handler, whom he knew only as Ayman, and used code words to confirm his identity.
The man said, however, that he had not taken part in a plot to target Israeli tourists visiting Cyprus, as prosecutors charge.
But he was arrested in July with the license plates of buses ferrying Israelis written in a notebook. Less than two weeks later, a bus was blown up in Bulgaria, killing five Israelis. This month, Bulgarian officials announced that evidence pointed to Hezbollah.
The stakes in the trial in Cyprus are high both for Hezbollah and the European Union, which has resisted following Washington's lead and declaring the militant group a terrorist organization. Experts say a conviction in Cyprus could put even more pressure on the bloc for such a designation.
NEW YORK TIMES
