[Ynet] Suspects arrested on suspicion of gathering information about security facility where one of them works and handing documents over to foreign agent in Egypt; two released to house arrest
Israel Police arrested two men early last week for allegedly selling information about a sensitive security facility in central Israel to a foreign agent, Ynet learned on Wednesday.
The suspects, two relatives in their 20s from northern Israel and a town near Jerusalem, are said to have collected information about the facility where one of them worked and conveyed it to foreign actors.
The two are suspected of a laundry list of offenses - national security, collecting and possessing classified information, making contact and passing information concerning national security to a foreign agent, conspiracy, making threats and assault causing grievous bodily harm.
According to the suspicion, one of the suspects gathered information about the facility when he worked there seven years ago, and his relative helped him store the material for him.
The material was then handed over to the relative's 14-year-old sister so she would keep it. She handed the material to a friend, who was asked to return the same material to the suspect who did not work at the facility.
After the girl failed to return the materials in a timely manner, the suspects allegedly conspired together and attacked her during a school trip to northern Israel.
Several weeks ago, the relative drove toward the Egyptian border with the materials from the facility in his possession. After crossing the border to Sinai, the suspect handed the documents over to a foreign agent.
The suspect's parents contacted the police after they were unable to reach him. Law enforcement discovered that he had crossed into Sinai without notifying anyone.
The two suspects were arrested early last week, and their remand was extended several times. They were released on parole to house arrest earlier this week.
The names of the suspects, details about the security facility and the contractor company that employed the suspect at the facility remain under a gag order according to the decision of the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court for national security concerns.
Attorney Yehuda Shoshan, who represents one of the suspects, called the case a "purely coincidental sequence of events that Israel Police made a movie out of, which could be a comedy at most and has no connection to the suspicions."
Shoshan further stated that his client has no previous criminal record and denied he ever received or handed over any classified information. 
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