Egypt charges four with spying for Israel
Pastor Dale Morgan
Egypt charges four with spying for Israel*
Reuters
Saturday, February 3, 2007; 7:05 PM
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has charged an Egyptian who holds Canadian
citizenship and three Israelis with spying for Israel, a state
prosecutor said on Saturday.
High State Security Prosecutor Hisham Badawi said the Egyptian, Mohamed
Essam Ghoneim el-Attar, 31, had been arrested and charged. The rest of
the suspected spy ring, who are in Turkey and Canada, were charged in
absentia.
Badawi said the Israelis recruited Attar while he was living in Turkey
in August 2001 and that intelligence agents assisted him in obtaining a
residency permit in Canada under a fake name and found him work in a bank.
Attar was paid to spy on Egyptians and Arabs during his time in Turkey
and Canada and used his position in the bank to obtain information on
specific accounts, Badawi added.
He was also expected to scout and approach potential recruits, according
to Badawi, who said Attar was paid $56,000 between August 2001 and
January 1, 2007, when he was arrested at Cairo airport as he entered
Egypt for a family visit.
Badawi said Attar had been under investigation since January 2002 and
would stand trial before a High State Security Emergency Court.
"We only know what we have heard in the media. I am not aware of
anything other than what has been reported," Israeli Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mark Regev told Reuters in Jerusalem.
Bernard Nguyen, a spokesman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs
in Ottawa, said the government was aware of the allegations against the
Canadian citizen but declined to give further information, citing
privacy concerns.
In 1996, Egypt detained Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Arab textile worker, and
sentenced him to 15 years in prison for spying for Israel. Egypt said
Azzam passed messages in women's underwear using invisible ink.
Both Azzam and Israel denied the charges. He was released after serving
eight years, as part of a deal that included the release of six Egyptian
students in Israel.
(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Amran Abocar in
Toronto)