An Egyptian American accused by Syrian TV of being paid to "destabilize Syria" is under investigation in Syria and is not allowed to leave the country.

Muhammad Radwan, 32, of Houston said on Syria TV that "someone in Colombia" reached him by e-mail and tried to hire him to take photos of events in Syria.

SANA, the Syrian Arab News Agency, says Radwan, who was detained March 25, has given a "preliminary confession" about his activities.

"The television broadcast the confessions of an Egyptian with American nationality who works in Syria," SANA reports. "He said that he visited Israel in secret and confessed to receiving money from abroad in exchange for sending photos and videos about Syria."

Tarek Radwan, Muhammad's brother, tells the Texas A&M newspaper The Battalion that he "was no more an activist in Syria than any other citizen journalist interested in potentially historic events that are happening around him."

"It's not unusual that he would take photos of that, but he would never sell these photos – he would give them away for free," Tarek Radwan says.

Al Ahram Online, an Egyptian newspaper, says Radwan works as an engineer for a Syrian company and expressed no concern to his family shortly before he was detained, telling them that Syria was "quiet" and "very safe."

Radwan's mother says her son, a 2001 engineering graduate from Texas A&M, went to Cairo when the popular uprising broke out in Egypt but is only an "idealist" and not a spy.

CNN says Syrian authorities have not allowed any contact with Radwan from lawyers or Egyptian or American diplomats.