A week after Makhoul's arrest, the judge in the case allowed the partial lifting of the gag order so the media could name the accused.
According to a 2010 indictment, as reported in Haaretz, both Makhoul and Sayid were recruited as spies for Hezbollah by Hassan Jaja, who is described as an agent of the organization operating in Jordan.
In addition he was asked to record the locations of rocket strikes during the Second Lebanon War, and to pass his observations regarding Israeli public opinion on various topics.
[citation needed] On reading the Haaretz report, Jaja's wife, Razan Zuayter, wrote a letter to the Jordanian newspaper Alghad, in which she denied the charge that her husband had any affiliation with Hezbollah.
In October 2010, Makhoul admitted to contacting a foreign agent, conspiring to assisting an enemy in a time of war, and aggravated espionage for Hezbollah, as part of a plea bargain.
[2] Amnesty International described the conviction as "very disturbing development", called on the Israeli authorities to end what they described as "harassment of Palestinian human rights activists" and said that they were "extremely concerned by allegations that he was tortured and otherwise ill-treated following his arrest".