The EnvoyAmerican arrested on allegations of spying on Syrian dissidents in U.S.
A Syrian-born American man in Virginia was arrested Tuesday on charges of spying on Syrian dissidents in the United States for the Syrian regime, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, a.k.a. "Alex Soueid," 47, a resident of Leesburg, Va., was indicted for acting as an unregistered agent of the Syrian intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat, for providing false statements on a firearms purchase, and for providing false statements to federal law enforcement.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison on the foreign agent charges, 15 years for the firearms charges and 10 years in prison on the false statement charges, the Justice Department said Wednesday in a statement on the case.
Syrian dissidents and exiles in the United States have repeatedly claimed their relatives in Syria were being persecuted because of their appearance at pro-democracy events in American cities. The State Department has repeatedly raised the charges, which have been vociferously denied by the Syrian ambassador to Washington, Imad Moustafa.
Soueid "is accused of providing the Mukhabarat contact information, including phone numbers and email addresses, for protestors in the United States," according to the Justice Department statement. It continues:
In a handwritten letter sent to [undercover confidential source] UCC-1, Soueid allegedly expressed his belief that violence against protestors—including raiding their homes—was justified and that any method should be used to deal with the protestors. The indictment alleges that Soueid provided information regarding U.S. protestors against the Syrian regime to an individual who worked at the Syrian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Soueid was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday afternoon in Alexandria, Virginia.
