LONDON, July 1: Did President Gamal Nasser’s son-in-law Ashraf Marwan, spy for Israel and had alerted Mossad well in time about what is called the 1973 war?

The story in the Sunday Times suggests that he did and quotes extensively from Mossad and Israeli sources to prove the allegation.

Filed from Tel Aviv by Uzi Mahnaimi the report says Ashraf Marwan, a close aide of President Saadat as well who fell to his death from the balcony of his London flat after being named as a Mossad spy was writing a book that threatened to expose the murky world of Arab-Israeli espionage.

Israeli intelligence sources claimed this weekend that he had been one of the greatest spies recruited by Mossad.

They said Marwan had supplied the Israeli secret service with a treasure trove of information, including the secret plans drawn up by Egypt’s leaders to cross the Suez Canal and attack Israel in 1973.

Ahron Bregman, an Israeli historian at King’s College London, however, believes Marwan was a double agent who misled the Israelis over Egypt’s plans for the war.

Police are exploring three possibilities in connection with his death: that he was murdered, that he jumped or that he fell.

Other friends believe that he feared being assassinated after being “outed” as a Mossad spy.

The son of an Egyptian general, Marwan studied at Cairo university where he met Mona, Nasser’s daughter. He was 21 and she was 17. The couple married a year later and went on to have two sons, Gamal and Ahmed.

Marwan was soon leading a double life. It was the start of a 30-year relationship that saw highly classified information, including the minutes of meetings between Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president, and other world leaders regularly passing into Mossad’s hands.

“It’s as if we were sleeping in the bedroom of the Egyptian presidential couple,” recalled an Israeli source.

Marwan, who worked in Sadat’s office, made only two conditions in return for his services: he was to be paid £50,000 for each significant meeting he had with his Israeli handlers and he insisted that one Mr D was to be his sole controller.

By 1972 Marwan was a millionaire and had revealed details to Mossad about secret arms deals between Egypt and the Soviet Union, according to Israeli sources.

But the best was yet to come. Marwan invited D to a meeting in London at which he handed his controller a suitcase full of documents outlining Egypt’s plans to cross Suez and attack Israel. Intelligence sources claim that overconfident Israeli military chiefs ignored the plans and they were left to sit in a safe in Tel Aviv.

In September 1973 King Hussein of Jordan tipped off Prime Minister Golda Meir that Syria was also about to launch an attack. Meir sought Marwan’s advice.

Marwan’s contact after meeting him rang Tel Aviv in the early hours of the morning of the attack and told colleagues: “Call Golda (Meir). It’s today at 6pm, both Syria and Egypt”, Israeli sources said.

Marwan’s tardiness raised suspicions that he was a double agent but he was exonerated by Mossad. In Egypt Marwan remained a hero and was decorated by Sadat before moving to London, where he became active in the business world.