THE kidnapped Israeli businessman at the centre of a prisoner exchange last night made a dramatic appearance on a Hezbollah-run television station, telling viewers that he had been on a mission to find the missing airman Ron Arad.

Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was abducted in 2000, was shown on al-Manar television sitting in a chair and speaking to a reporter. “I came to Beirut to gather information about Ron Arad,” Mr Tannenbaum, wearing a light brown shirt, said in Hebrew.

“I thought I could get information on Ron Arad, which I obviously would have passed on to the Israeli authorities . . . You must listen to all I have to say. I am not guilty of committing such serious crimes against Israel as people say I am.”

The 57-year-old reserve air force colonel faces an investigation by Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service, police and army over the mysterious circumstances in which he was snatched. Although the exact nature of Mr Tannenbaum’s misdemeanours have never been fully revealed, some Israeli officials have reacted with undisguised hostility at the inclusion of such a “criminal” in the prisoner exchange deal.

Mr Arad is an Israeli airman whose aircraft was shot down while on a bombing mission in Lebanon in 1986. There has been no information about him ever since, although most Israelis assume that he is dead.

Early today television pictures showed Mr Tannenbaum walking to a German Air Force plane at Beirut airport, from where he was to be flown to Germany. Three wooden coffins containing the remains of three Israeli soldiers killed after they were abducted on a border patrol in Lebanon in 2000 were also carried to the aircraft as part of the exchange, which was brokered by Germany. Israel was to release up to 436 Arab prisoners, most of them Palestinians, in return for Mr Tannenbaum and the soldiers’ bodies.

Israel is prepared to free more Palestinian prisoners if Mr Arad’s fate is clarified.

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