WASHINGTON, Sept 23: In a widening spy hunt, a US Air Force airman who served as a translator at a detention center for Afghan war prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been charged with espionage and aiding the enemy, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.

The man, who was detained on July 23 on his return from the base at Guantanamo and is being held at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, was identified by the Pentagon as senior airman, Ahmad I Al Halabi.

He was charged with 33 counts of espionage, aiding the enemy, failing to obey a lawful order, bank fraud, and making a false official statement, said Major Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman.

News of Al Halabi’s arrest follows the disclosure over the weekend that an army chaplain at the Guantanamo detention center, Captain James Yee, was arrested September 10 on suspicion of espionage. Asked whether the two were linked, Shavers said, “Only in the sense that they were there at approximately the same time.”—AFP