The Limassol District Court in Cyprus extended on Sunday by three days the remand of a 30-year-old Israeli who was arrested on Saturday at the city's port after a loaded magazine was found in his luggage, according to the Cypriot news agency CNA. According to the report, the Israeli intended to sail with his wife on a cruise ship that was scheduled to depart from the port on Saturday afternoon.
According to the Cypriot website Ink, during baggage screening, security personnel located a magazine containing 18 bullets in his bag, alongside a black walkie-talkie. The security personnel summoned port police officers, who identified the owner of the bag. When asked about the items, the Israeli replied that he was a soldier. The Cypriot newspaper Phileleftheros, which also reported on the arrest, stated that following the discovery of the magazine, the Israeli was transferred to the Limassol police offices.
As part of the investigation, about 20 testimonies are expected to be taken.
According to details that have emerged, the Israeli arrived in Limassol on November 13 at 12:30 p.m. aboard the cruise ship Crown Iris, which had departed from Haifa a day earlier. He was arrested the following day, November 14, at the new port of Limassol as he was about to set sail from it. According to suspicion, port security guards noticed a suspicious object in his shoulder bag. When police officers informed him that they intended to check the bag, he replied, "It's mine, okay." When told that it is prohibited to possess and transfer the items, he answered, "I'm a soldier."
During his interrogation, he claimed that the equipment is registered in his name in the military and that he forgot it in the bag before leaving Israel. When asked if the bag underwent screening at the Port of Haifa, he replied that there was heavy congestion at the location.
The suspicions attributed to him are unlawful possession and transfer of explosives, as well as possession and transfer of a weapon that is not a firearm. His attorney, Alexandros Sauris, did not object to the extension of the remand. The police intend to collect about 20 additional testimonies and transfer the seized items to laboratory and ballistic testing.
Mano Maritime, owner of the Crown Iris ship, which operates the line between Haifa and Limassol every weekend, chose not to comment on the incident.
Despite Foreign Ministry guidelines to be cautious, Israelis repeatedly get into trouble with luggage in which one munition item or another was forgotten. Two weeks ago, through the intervention of the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli military attaché in India, the High Court in the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India dismissed the criminal case against Yonatan Levi, a 24-year-old Israeli and IDF reservist who was arrested in September after a live bullet was discovered in his bag during screening at Gaggal Airport in Kangra District. The judges ordered the cancellation of all proceedings stemming from the case as well.