'US consul in Egypt tells Grapel he is in big trouble'

'Al-Ahram' report comes after previous report saying accused Mossad spy could face charges in 1 week after he allegedly confessed to being a spy.

By BEN HARTMAN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Ilan Grapel_311 (photo credit: Channel 10 News)
Ilan Grapel_311
(photo credit: Channel 10 News)
The US consul in Cairo met with alleged Mossad spy Ilan Grapel, who was arrested in Egypt last week, and told him he was "in big trouble," Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported Friday.
According to the report, Grapel asked during his stay in Egypt to extend his visa, and wrote on the application that he is a Muslim who came to Cairo to study.
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On Thursday, Al-Ahram reported that Grapel, an Israeli-American citizen, could face indictment next week over accusations by Egypt that he was spying for Israel.
According to the newspaper, Grapel confessed to charges that he was working for the Mossad to foment unrest in Egypt and recruit Egyptian citizens to help him in his espionage campaign. The paper added that Grapel confessed to sending his Mossad handlers intelligence reports on a daily basis from Internet cafes in the Egyptian capital.
If true, the reports would run contrary to the conventional wisdom expressed in recent days by senior Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, that the 27-year-old American- Israeli will be released in the coming days.
The same Al-Ahram report also stated that Grapel claimed to be Muslim on the visa application that he submitted at the Egyptian consulate in Tel Aviv.
In addition, he tried to gain intelligence on Egyptian popular opinion of the Hamas-Fatah unity deal and “penetrated” meetings of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist parties, Al- Ahram reported.
On Sunday, Grapel was arrested at his downtown Cairo hotel by state security officers and taken before Judge Hesham Badawi of the Supreme State Security Prosecution who ordered him detained for 15 days on charges of “spying on Egypt with the aim of harming its economic and political interests,” according to the MENA news agency.
State Department officials have managed to visit Grapel, and his mother Irene Grapel said this week that she has spoken to her son and that he is in good health.
Grapel was in Cairo working for a nonprofit organization helping African refugees.
His family, friends and the Israeli government have all denied he had any involvement with Israeli intelligence.
The New York native, who is currently enrolled as a law student at Emory University, served as a paratrooper in the IDF during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, where he was injured in combat.
On Tuesday, Lieberman told Army Radio that Grapel is nothing more than an innocent student, and Israel is hoping for his imminent release.
Lieberman added that Grapel is “maybe a bit strange or irresponsible; but he has no connection to any intelligence service – not Israeli or American, and not on Mars.”
Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon contributed to this report.