The Criminal Court in Cyprus’s Limassol on Thursday sentenced Lebanese-Swedish national Hossam Yakoub—who confessed to being a Hezbollah member—to four years in prison.
Yakoub was found guilty last week on five charges of participation in criminal activities and membership in a criminal organization.
The judges initially recommended a 10 year sentence, but after the defense counsel argued that the defendant is young and has a clean record, the sentence was reduced to 4 years, Greek daily I Kathimerini reported.
The sentence will take into consideration the 9 months Yaakoub already spent in prison since he was arrested in July 2012.
According to his written confession, Yakoub has been a Hezbollah member for four years.
After being trained in a camp in Lebanon, he was paid a $600 per month salary to run errands around Europe.
His handler, a masked man who used the code name Ayman, sent him on reconnaissance missions to seaside resorts in Turkey and Cyprus, and also gave him mysterious packages to deliver to European addresses. Yaakoub said he was unaware of what was in the packages.
The young man denied in court last month that he was ever a terrorist and said he was only collecting information about “the Jews”: “This is what my organization is doing, everywhere in the world,” NOW reported.
The prosecution indicted the Lebanese-Swedish man with being part of a criminal plot, conspiracy, and participation in a criminal organization.
According to Yakoub’s counselor, Antonis Georgiadis, the initial charges of terrorism were dropped with no explanation by the prosecutor.
The conviction comes after Bulgaria in February accused Hezbollah operatives of taking part in the 2012 Burgas bus bombing that killed 5 Israelis.
This led to renewed calls from the United States, Israel and Canada on the EU to designate Hezbollah as a "terrorist" organization.
