Found guilty of seeking to spy for Israel, a state security court sentenced a young lawyer to 15 years behind bars, Jailan Halawi reports "Ahmed Walid Hashem is guilty of the charges pressed against him, and is sentenced to 15 years in prison," announced Judge Adel Abdel-Salam Gomaa, turning the page on the case of the 29-year-old lawyer accused of seeking to provide a foreign country, in this case Israel, with information that undermines Egypt's national security in return for money. As soon as the judge made his exit from the courtroom, a scene of chaos prevailed. While the defendant quietly wept, his four sisters cried hysterically in disbelief at what they described as an "unfair and unjust" sentence. "15 years," cried Hanan, Hashem's elder sister. "Is this justice?" she exclaimed. "He is innocent! He does not need the money, this is unfair," she repeated angrily amidst a handful of cameras and reporters who bombarded Hashem's family for an immediate reaction following the ruling. Other family members were so agitated that they pushed away cameras and urged journalists to show more respect to the family's plight while Hashem's brother Mohamed asked the family to show more self- restraint. Hashem was soon whisked away by officials in a bid to restore order and disperse the crowd. It is expected that details of the ruling will be announced soon. The 31 March sentence only stated that Hashem was found guilty of offering to provide information to the Israeli Embassy and sending the embassy classified information. Upon the prosecution's request, the State Security Emergency Court imposed the maximum custodial sentence and fined Hashem LE1,000. The case was sparked by a report provided by "secret" State Security Intelligence (SSI) sources regarding an individual who had repeatedly sent faxes, including documents containing vital information, to an unknown destination from a certain communications centre. The hand-written faxed message said the sender would provide more information upon receiving a sum of money, to be handed to him at a Giza cafe. SSI investigations led to Hashem, and the fax number was identified as belonging to the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. On 23 October 2003, Hashem was arrested at a cafe in Giza. He was taken to SSI headquarters, where he spent four days being interrogated before being referred to the State Security prosecutor for further interrogation. Going through a financial crisis, argued the prosecutor, Hashem sought to sell information to the Israeli Embassy in return for money. In order to avoid his calls being traced, he used public phones to contact the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. Each time he was asked to come in person to meet with the embassy's security officials. Hashem balked at the idea, deciding to send a hand- written fax to the embassy instead along with a sample of sensitive documents as a token of his intentions. Hashem said he would provide more information if they delivered $2,500 to him on 23 October. Hashem's defence, however, argued that the case was "built on suspicion void of a single fact", urging that the court should take into consideration Hashem's future and the repercussions of convicting him. Nevertheless, prosecutors sought a strict implementation of statute, where treason as much relates to the intention of carrying out the act as it does to its execution. According to security experts, purchasing secrets from traitors remains an effective and profitable mainstay of intelligence collection. A few million dollars invested in an intelligence programme to recruit spies with access to important secrets may result in economic payoffs worth billions of dollars. Hence, experts argue that countries ought to base their defences as much on combating the treachery of citizens within as the actions of enemies without. Hashem's case, however, has baffled many court spectators who found it difficult to understand how a lawyer could be so naive as to use "primitive" and ultimately traceable methods of exchanging information when the Internet has given a new meaning to anonymous communication. Several spectators told Al-Ahram Weekly that they were so intrigued by Hashem's case that they attended the final court session to find out first about the ruling. "I am sure the judge will give him the harshest sentence, and that would waste his life behind bars and totally ruin his future. By the time he would come out there would be nothing to do," one spectator said before the ruling. "Let [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon find him a job," was the comment made by another. At the time of the arrest, an Israeli Embassy spokesman said the embassy knew nothing about the man and had no connection with him. Sentences passed by state security courts cannot be appealed and can only be overturned by the president. Hashem's sister Hanan said she would appeal to the president for a pardon on the grounds that the charges were "so unbelievable". By Jailan Halawi
