A coroner's inquest due to start this fall is expected to shed light on the murky circumstances surrounding the death of Ashraf Marwan, a wealthy suspected spy who fell to his death in London last year.

Scotland Yard's Special Crimes Directorate is still gathering evidence to determine whether the 62-year-old Egyptian's sudden death in June, 2007, was suicide, accident or murder. He fell from the fourth floor balcony of his spacious apartment on one of London's most exclusive streets.

Given his role as a suspected undercover agent at the height of the conflict between Israel and Egypt, many intelligence experts believe the inquest may find Mr. Marwan was the victim of foul play.

"I have no doubt he was murdered," said Yossi Melman, an Israeli journalist and historian who has written several books about intelligence matters. "It was a revenge operation. Marwan was very close to the top. He had only one mission -- provide Israel advance warning if Egypt was going to start a war."

But no one has proved whether the suave 62-year-old spy was a turncoat who gave Israel crucial Egyptian military plans before the 1973 Yom Kippur war or a cunning double agent who provided Israeli leaders with tantalizing information that was often accurate but, at key times, not quite right.

Mr. Marwan was uniquely positioned to help the Israelis, or to dupe them. He was a son-in-law of powerful Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and a trusted aide to Nasser's successor, President Anwar Sadat.

-- The Associated Press