UPDATE, 3:36 p.m.: U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan ordered that Soueid remain in custody pending a Friday detention hearing. Soueid appeared in court without an attorney, and said he would retain his own defense lawyer.
The Syrian Embassy has issued a statement that strongly denies the allegations against Soueid. The statement calls the accusations “absolutely baseless” and says he has never worked for Syrian officials or met with Assad.
ORIGINAL POST: A Leesburg man has been indicted on charges of spying on people protesting the Syrian government and providing information to the country’s intelligence organization.
Mohamad Soueid, a Syrian-born U.S. citizen, was charged in federal court in Alexandria with acting as an agent of a foreign government, false statements and other related offenses.
An indictment unsealed Wednesday alleges that he provided about 20 audio and video recordings of anti-government protests and conversations with protesters to Syrian intelligence between April and June.
Federal prosecutors say Soueid, 47, was giving the Syrian government that information to intimidate and potentially harm the protesters. Since early this year, Syrian officials have brutally cracked down on anti-government protesters.
Soueid went to Syria in June, and while there, he met privately with President Bashar al-Assad, according to the indictment.
The indictment says he also recruited others to film and record U.S. protests against the Syrian regime and gave Syrian intelligence officials the names, phone numbers and email addresses of protesters.
He wrote in an April letter that he believed violence against the protesters was justified, the indictment says.
“The ability to assemble and protest is a cherished right in the United States, and it’s troubling that a U.S. citizen from Leesburg is accused of working with the Syrian government to identify and intimidate those who exercise that right,” Neil MacBride, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement.
Soueid is scheduled to have an initial court hearing Wednesday afternoon. He was arrested Tuesday and it was not immediately known Wednesday whether he had an attorney.
