- AUCKLAND - New Zealand yesterday
vowed to make a strong response after two Israelis reported to be Mossad
spies were arrested and charged with attempting to obtain New Zealand passports.
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- Prime Minister Helen Clark confirmed court proceedings
were underway against two Israelis in Auckland.
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- "There will be a strong and public response to this
matter once the court action has concluded," she said.
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- Clark has not said the men are spies but the New Zealand
Herald Saturday said authorities believed they were agents of Israel's
Mossad spy agency.
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- Urie Zoshe Kelman, 30, and Eli Cara, 50, denied three
joint charges including attempting to obtain a New Zealand passport and
participating in an organised crime group to obtain a false passport.
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- Another man, Zev William Barkan, 37, has fled while authorities
believe a fourth suspect is still in the country.
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- Israel's foreign ministry said two men had been arrested
in New Zealand for "criminal reasons," public radio in Jerusalem
reported.
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- "The foreign affairs ministry confirms that two
Israelis were arrested in New Zealand for criminal reasons," the radio
said.
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- Kelman and Cara appeared briefly in Auckland District
Court on Friday and were remanded on bail with strict reporting and curfew
conditions ahead of a High Court trial at a date yet to be set.
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- Outside court Cara denied being a Mossad member and Kelman
refused to answer questions.
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- The case is the first known case of suspected foreign
agents appearing in a New Zealand court since the 1985 arrest of two French
spies who were part of a team that blew up the Greenpeace ship Rainbow
Warrior in Auckland harbour, killing one man.
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- Documents lodged in court said police allege Barkan tried
to get a passport in the name of a New Zealander suffering from cerebral
palsy.
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