AP News, February 24th, 2007
An Egyptian charged with spying for Israel pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial on Saturday and claimed he had confessed under torture, a court official said.
Mohammed el-Attar, who also holds Canadian citizenship, was arrested on Jan. 1 as he returned from abroad to visit his family in Egypt.
He was charged with spying for Israel and harming Egyptian national interests. Three Israelis, who were charged alongside el-Attar, remain at large and are being tried in absentia. If convicted, el-Attar and his co-defendants face a maximum life sentence, with hard labor.
After el-Attar's appearance Saturday at the State Security Emergency court, the judge adjourned the hearings until Wednesday. In his plea, el-Attar accused security officers of torturing him to get his confession, according to a court official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk the press.
As he was brought to court, el-Attar, clean-shaven and wearing a white prison jumpsuit, flashed a victory sign to photographers.
The judge ordered the postponement to give the defense attorney time to review the indictment sheet and evidence presented by the state prosecutor which included a digital camera, photographs of el-Attar and other documents, the official added.
Last week, Egyptian authorities asked Interpol to arrest the three Israelis. The state-run news agency MENA identified them as Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosba and Tuncay Bubay. They are accused of collaborating, recruiting and instructing el-Attar in espionage.
The Israeli government has said it learned about the case from the media and denied an knowledge of the allegations or the people involved.
Verdicts by Egyptian state security courts are final, except for when a president issues a presidential pardon.
According to the prosecutors, el-Attar confessed of spying for Israel and gave a detailed account of his role in collecting information about Egyptians, and Arabs living in Turkey and Canada in return for money. He also received instructions from the three Israelis, said to be intelligence officers, to recruit Christian Egyptian immigrants in Canada using money and sex.
El-Attar, according to his alleged confessions which were published in independent and government newspapers here, fled the country in 2001 after he was sentenced to three years imprisonment in a bank fraud case.
