Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

After being freed from Egyptian prison, Ilan Grapel told Mets won World Series

Israel Egypt

Emory University law student Ilan Grapel speaks during a news conference with Congressman Gary Ackerman at his side after Ackerman brought Grapel home from Israel to Kennedy Airport on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011, in New York. Grapel was arrested in Egypt last June and accused of spying for Israel and the U.S. State Department. He was freed in exchange for 25 Egyptian prisoners. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

AP

Did you know that the Mets won the World Series? For a little while, that’s what 27-year-old Ilan Grapel thought.

Grapel, a law student from Queens, New York, was freed Thursday after spending five months in an Egyptian prison. He was accused of spying for Israel in June after attending a demonstration in Cairo during the country’s uprising. The United States helped broker a deal this week to set him free as part of a prisoner swap.

According to the New York Post, Grapel was celebrating his release from isolation with a press conference in Tel Aviv when Rep. Gary Ackerman from New York let everyone in on the joke.

“There’s so many people to thank,” he said, “and after being cut off for the past five months ...”

Ackerman quickly interjected, “We told him the Mets won the World Series.”

You know, because the poor guy didn’t suffer enough.