Nine Egyptians are expected to stand trial before a state security court on charges of spying for Israel. Jailan Halawi reviews the case Although the arrests were made in September, only last week did Egypt announce the detention of six Egyptians accused of spying for Israel. Not much information was divulged by state security prosecutors, who merely said that the Egyptian Intelligence Service (Mokhabarat) had succeeded in revealing, and hence thwarting, the spy ring. Information leaked to the press, however, claimed that the alleged spy ring was working under the cover of a tourism agency, and that it included a renowned football player from one of Egypt's top teams -- which inspired much curiosity from a rival team's fans. Police reports, however, identified the key suspects in the alleged spy ring as 35- year-old retired handball player Nagla'a Ibrahim, and Khaled Gaber, a manager at a tourism company. Initial reports also claimed that the ring included a diplomat at Egypt's embassy in Tel Aviv, but on 16 November the Interior Ministry said the embassy suspect was actually an administrative employee, not a diplomat. On 17 November, prosecutors announced the detention of three more Egyptians, bringing the number of suspects in custody to nine. No further information about the detainees was revealed, other than that police are still hunting for three more suspects who remain at large. The suspects are charged with spying for Israel in exchange for money, with the aim of harming Egypt's interests. They also stand accused of using a travel agency as a cover to smuggle nationals from China, Russia, Malaysia and the Philippines into Israel via Egyptian borders in both north and south Sinai. According to some observers, the case does not amount to an espionage scheme. They feel it should be dealt with merely from the angle of a tourism company dealing in illegal immigration across borders. Security sources speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly on customary condition of anonymity, however, argued that such cases -- including the dismantling of more than 20 Israeli spy rings since a peace treaty with Israel was signed in 1979 -- are built on "solid evidence." In 1997, an Egyptian court sentenced Azzam Azzam, an Arab-Israeli working in Egypt, to 15 years in prison with hard labour for acting as a liaison between the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, and an Egyptian spy. Azzam, who worked at a joint Israeli-Egyptian textile firm, was found guilty of delivering a pair of women's underwear soaked with invisible ink to his Egyptian colleague, Emad Ismail. Ismail, who became frightened after receiving a phone call from an Israeli contact telling him to take special care of the undergarments, handed himself in to the Egyptian authorities, but was nonetheless given a sentence of 25 years with hard labour. At the time, Azzam's lawyer claimed his client was being punished in order to slow down the normalisation process between Egypt and Israel. He contended that the Egyptian intelligence service had invented both the charges and the evidence. In March this year, a state security court sentenced Sherif El-Filali, a 35-year-old Egyptian engineer, to 15 years in prison with hard labour for spying for Israel. He was initially acquitted, but President Hosni Mubarak threw out the ruling and ordered a retrial (under the Emergency Law in force since 1981, verdicts passed by state security courts must be ratified by the president). El-Filali was accused of trying to collect military information, as well as data on the tourism situation and an agricultural development scheme. Prosecutors said he was recruited in Spain, and they presented court documents indicating that El- Filali travelled between Spain and Egypt in 1999 before realising he was collecting information for Mossad. In June, a state security court convicted a 52-year-old unemployed man named Anwar Mohamed Tawfiq of offering to spy for Israel. Tawfiq was sentenced to 10 years in jail. The Egyptian security services had accused Tawfiq of forging documents suggesting he was a minister plenipotentiary. They said Tawfiq had contacted the Israeli consulate in Alexandria with offers to provide sensitive information. Tawfiq acknowledged he had sent a fax to the consulate, but claimed he was only trying to get the addresses of international agencies because he wanted to offer testimony about an international case that had nothing to do with Egypt. His lawyer had attempted to argue that his client was mentally ill. Although Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, relations have declined drastically over the past two years. In November 2000, Egypt recalled its ambassador from Israel in protest against Israel's handling of the Palestinian Intifada. The post remains vacant today.
