Shalit back home
Photo: Hagai Aharon
Special agent 008: German Shalit mediator exposed
Bernd Schmidbauer played key role in finalizing Shalit swap, al-Arabiya reports
Former German Intelligence Chief Bernd Schmidbauer is the mediator who played a key role in securing the Gilad Shalit prisoner release,
al-Arabiya reported Saturday.
Previously, Germany's role in finalizing the deal that saw Shalit freed in exchange for 1,027 Arab prisoners was said to be marginal.
According to the report, Schmidbauer also managed to facilitate major progress in the efforts to secure the extradition of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libya's ousted tyrant.
"Gaddafi junior, who continue to plead innocent, is the one who initiated the connection with Schmidbauer, renowned for mediating the Shalit deal," the Arabic-language network said.
Schmidbauer, who is known as secret agent 008, declared about seven years ago that Israeli captive Ron Arad was dead.
The German intelligence official, who at the time visited Berlin, Beirut, Tehran and Jerusalem in an effort to secure the missing Airman's release, told German television that "the only question left is whether Arad died of a serious disease, of an injury related to his plane crash, or whether he was killed."
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