WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- A naturalized U.S. citizen is charged with spying on Syrian protesters in the United States on behalf of Syria, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, 47, of Leesburg, Va., was accused of participating in a conspiracy to collect video and audio recordings and other information "about individuals in the United States and Syria who were protesting the government of Syria and to provide these materials to Syrian intelligence agencies," the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.
The department said Soueid, aka "Alex Soueid" or "Anas Alswaid," is a Syrian-born naturalized U.S. citizen. He was named by a federal grand jury in Alexandria last week in a six-count indictment charging him with conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Syrian government in the United States without notifying the attorney general as required by law, and two counts of providing false statements on a firearms purchase from and two counts of providing false statements to federal law enforcement.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison on the conspiracy and foreign agent charges; 15 years on the firearm purchase charges and 10 years on the false statement charge.
Soueid has acted in the United States since March as an agent of the Syrian Mukhabarat -- the Syrian intelligence agencies including the Syrian Military Intelligence and General Intelligence Directorate, the indictment alleges.
The indictment alleges in late June the Syrian government paid for Soueid to travel to Syria where he met with intelligence officials and spoke with President Bashar Assad in private. He returned to the United States in early July and he was searched and questioned at Dulles International Airport on arrival.
The FBI interviewed Soueid Aug. 3, and the indictment accuses him of lying to the agents when he denied he had collected information on U.S. persons and transmitted that information to the government of Syria.
