unit. The Mossad was in a position to capture him and have him tried
in Israel if it so desired. But it decided that Louk, traveling freely in
Europe, rather than languishing in jail, would be of great value in
tracing the methods of Egyptian intelligence. Indeed, everything
Louk did in Europe, every move he made, was known to the Mossad,
whose operatives followed him constantly. In 1962–1963 he worked
mainly in West Germany and Switzerland. In January 1964 Egyptian
intelligence moved him to Naples.
Toward the end of 1964, Louk began to feel that the Egyptians
were not paying him enough for his services and started making trou-
ble for his employers. In November that year in Naples, he met his
Egyptian case officer, who went by the name of Salim Ossman El-
Sayad, and told him that if his salary were not increased he would
quit. El-Sayad invited him to the Egyptian embassy in Rome to set-
tle the issue, in what he said would be a quiet and friendly atmos-
phere, with an Egyptian official authorized to approve pay rises.
Louk was shrewd enough not accept the invitation to the Egyptian
embassy, knowing that more people went in than came out. He pro-
posed holding the meeting at a public place in Rome. El-Sayad
agreed, determining the venue as the Café de Paris. El-Sayad, who
suspected that Louk was working for the Mossad, probably never in-
tended to hold the meeting. In fact, there and then on El-Sayad’s sig-
nal his men bundled Louk into their car and drugged him with mor-
phine; later they placed him in a trunk.
On the afternoon of 17 November 1964 Egyptian intelligence per-
sonnel tried to get the trunk, with Louk inside, aboard a United Arab
Airlines airplane at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport. On one side of the
truck was a label inscribed “United Arab Republic (UAR) Embassy”
with the warning “Diplomatic bag—do not open.” An alert Italian
porter heard moans coming from the trunk as it was being loaded
onto the plane and had it unloaded. Louk’s life was saved. He was
held by the Rome police before being extradited to Israel. There he
was tried and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
In the aftermath of the episode, three Egyptian diplomats in Rome
were deported to Egypt as personae non gratae. The Israeli version of
the affair was that, after capturing Louk, Egyptian intelligence in-
tended to force him to undergo plastic surgery and then, under a new
assumed Israeli identity, to send him to Israel to open a travel agencyLOUK, MORDECHAI• 16906-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:25 AM Page 169