Public lifeעודה תראבין

Ouda Tarabin

Ouda Tarabin is an Israeli Bedouin from the Negev who was held in an Egyptian prison for 15 years on espionage charges before his release in 2015.

born 198115 years imprisoned in EgyptEspionage conviction in absentia2015 prisoner exchange release

Born: 20 July 1981, Sinai Peninsula
Occupation: shepherd

Ouda Tarabin was born in 1981 in Sinai Peninsula

Ouda Tarabin was born in the Sinai Peninsula on July 20, 1981, to a Bedouin family of the Tarabin tribe. When Sinai passed to Egypt, his family chose to stay in Israel and moved to the Negev. They made a living herding camels and collecting metal.

In 2000 he crossed into Egypt without permission, reportedly to visit his married sister in El-Arish, and was arrested. He then learned that an Egyptian military court had tried him and his father in their absence for spying for Israel. He received 15 years and his father 25 years, based on testimony by a cousin in Egypt.

He was held in Tora prison in Cairo, in the cell where Azzam Azzam had been held. His family said he had done nothing beyond crossing the border without papers. Egypt confirmed it was holding him only in December 2004.

Israeli leaders raised his case with Egyptian officials many times, including Shimon Peres in 2009 and Benjamin Netanyahu in 2010. In 2013 he went on hunger strike. He was released on December 10, 2015, in exchange for 6 Egyptian criminal prisoners held in Israel.