Woman’s Denial Of Spy Guilt

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28266, 2 May 1957, Page 6

Woman’s Denial Of Spy Guilt

(N.Z. Press Association—Copy right) NEW YORK, April 30 Miss Mary Frances Hagan, a 29-year-old American secretary, returned home yesterday after serving eight months in an Israeli gaol on espionage charges. She denied ever having spied for Syria or anyone else.

Israeli authorities granted her release yesterday after she had served twq-thirds of her year’s sentence on charges of spying for Syria. The release was condi tional on her agreement to leave Israel immediately. Miss Hagan, who went to Israel last year as a tourist, told reporters she did not feel bitter over her imprisonment because “it is not my nature to be bitter.” A student of Middle East affairs. Miss Hagan formerly worked as an employee of the Syrian delegation to the United Nations.

Before leaving New York, she said, she had two Syrian courtesy visas stamped in her passport. “I am convinced the whole trouble arose because of these visas,” she said. She acknowledged that she was a friend of Galeb Kayali, a member of the Syrian Foreign Office. She wore a gold ring on the fourth finger of her left hand, but turned aside all inquiries as to whether Kayali was her husband, something which he recently denied.