WASHINGTON — A Syrian-born Virginia man has been arrested and charged with recruiting people to spy on people in the United States protesting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, 47, was arrested Tuesday on charges of acting as an agent for US Syrian intelligence agencies, known as the Mukhabarat, since March.
Soueid, a nationalized US citizen and resident of Leesburg, Va., will make a first appearance before a federal judge in Virginia later Wednesday. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
“He’s no mastermind,” Tomscha told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I can’t imagine him thinking up a plan like that. I mean, he didn’t seem all that political. He was more of a businessman.”
Soueid allegedly recruited other people living in the US to collect information and make audio and video recordings of protests against the Syrian regime, which has been the subject of anti-government demonstrations since March. The United States has called on Assad to step down, accusing him of intimidation and violence against demonstrators in Syria.
Soueid sent recordings and other information about anti-Assad protesters in the US to the Syrian government in an effort to “undermine, silence, intimidate and potentially harm those in the United States and Syria who engaged in the protests,” the Justice Department said.
The indictment states that in late June 2011, the Syrian government paid for Soueid to travel to Syria, where he met with intelligence officials and spoke with Assad in private.
Federal investigators also accuse Soueid, who is also known as “Alex Soueid” or “Anas Alswaid,” of providing Mukhabarat with the addresses and personal information of anti-Assad protesters in the US.
“The ability to assemble and protest is a cherished right in the United States, and it’s troubling that a US citizen from Leesburg is accused of working with the Syrian government to identify and intimidate those who exercise that right,” said US Attorney Neil MacBride.
Soueid has been charged with conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Syrian government in the United States without notifying the Attorney General, providing false statements on a firearms purchase form and providing false statements to federal law enforcement.
If convicted he could face up to 15 years in prison.