An Israeli man arrested in Lebanon on suspicion of involvement in murder and espionage.
Daniel Sharon, 32, who holds German and Israeli citizenship, converted to Islam years ago and had a special passion for Lebanon - an enemy country where Israelis have been kidnapped and held in the past, they said.
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Sharon is being interrogated by Lebanese military police, a Lebanese military official told The Associated Press on Sunday.
An Israeli government official insisted Sunday that Sharon was not working with Israeli authorities in any role. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive diplomatic nature of the case.
Shaul Mofaz, Israel's transportation minister, told Israel Radio Sunday that Sharon entered Lebanon "on his own accord" and in doing so had "crossed the line" - a reference to the ban on Israelis visiting enemy countries.
The events leading to Sharon's arrest last Thursday began when authorities in Beirut questioned a Lebanese security agent in connection with the shooting death of the man's roommate, according to a report in the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar.
The agent claimed to have been with a German friend at a Beirut hotel at the time of the killing. When authorities questioned the German friend, they discovered he was an Israeli who spoke Arabic and who had repeatedly visited Lebanon, the report said.
Sharon denied allegations he was spying for Israel, the reports said. He told police he visited Lebanon for tourism and that he was a homosexual who had relationships with Lebanese men, according to the reports.
Because the two countries are officially at war, any Israeli found in Lebanese territory would automatically be suspected of espionage, explaining Sharon's transfer to military police.
A friend of Sharon's, Maram Hamud, an Israeli Arab lawyer, dismissed the possibility that Sharon was spying for Israel.
Hamud described Sharon as someone who "loves Arabic and Islamic culture very much" and spends most of his time outside of Israel, mainly in the Gulf nation of Dubai.
Hamud said Sharon was the son of divorced parents, a homosexual who "feels comfortable" in Lebanon and who recently started going by the last name "Trabilsi" - meaning someone who hails from the Lebanese city of Tripoli.
"There is something childlike about him," Hamud said, explaining that children "do what they like to do, without giving it much thought. They're not calculated."
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