Senior Lebanese army officer arrested on spying charges

BEIRUT, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A senior Lebanese army officer was arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel, local As-Safier daily reported Wednesday.

The Lebanese army intelligence agency detained Col. Mansour Diab, an active service army officer, as part of a crackdown on Israel-linked spying networks which led to the arrest of over 40 suspects since April, the daily added.

Col. Diab was a member of the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) Party before he joined the Lebanese army in 1983, and was sent abroad by the army for several military training, then he headed the Lebanese army military academy in 2008.

At least two spies have fled to Israel since the crackdown started, and Lebanon has demanded Israel to hand them over, while many of the arrested suspects have confessed to working for Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

Meanwhile, Lebanon is still in a war state with Israel and the convicted spies face either life in prison or death penalty if found guilty of participating in killing Lebanese.

Hasan Nasrallah, chief of the Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah, called last week for death penalty for all the suspects, starting with the Shiite ones.