NEW YORK — An Emory University law student arrested months ago at a demonstration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, accused of being a spy and locked in jail for the summer, returned home to New York City on Saturday as part of a swap that freed 25 Egyptians held in Israel.
Ilan Grapel, 27, arrived at Kennedy airport looking tired and thin but wearing a huge smile.
He said that he had a new appreciation for the U.S. legal system.
“All of a sudden, the Bill of Rights is not something for the history books,” he told reporters gathered in the terminal.
Grapel, who holds joint U.S. and Israeli citizenship, was volunteering for a group aiding Sudanese refugees in Egypt and staying at a youth hostel when he was detained by police who saw him carrying a protest sign at a rally June 12.
He was accused of spying for Israel, then held without formal charges or a trial while U.S. and Israeli officials worked to gain his release.
Grapel said he was no spy, although he does have the type of resume that makes intelligence services drool.
The high achiever graduated early from Johns Hopkins University, speaks fluent Arabic and Hebrew, served in Israel’s armed forces and had internships with Israel’s high court and in the Queens district office of U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y.
The Associated Press
