15 - 21 February 2001
Issue No.521
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 15 - 21 February 2001 Issue No.521 |
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Gunboat testimony in murky spy case
In its second session since opening the high profile trial of an Egyptian national accused of spying for Israel on 13 January, a state security emergency court heard testimony from four prosecution witnesses on Sunday before again adjourning the trial until 14 March. Accused of espionage, Sherif El-Filali was arrested last September for attempting to gather sensitive state information and dealing with an alleged agent of the Israeli secret intelligence service. The second defendant, Russian national Gregory Sergevic, is being tried in absentia. It is the second time in four years that Egypt has tried a national on charges of spying for Israel.
Sherif El-Filali
On Sunday, the court heard from the main prosecution witness, Hussein Farghal, a retired navy officer from Alexandria who now runs a private import-export business. Farghal testified that the defendant's cousin, Seifeddin El-Filali, came to him saying that the defendant -- who was then residing in Spain -- had partners who wanted to buy three missile boats from the navy. Farghal said he told Sherif that he needed proper authorisation from the Egyptian embassy in Spain before he could help out on the deal. Seifeddin did not deny that he knew about the deal, but insisted that all his contacts were with Farghal. He also backed Farghal's claim that the two had asked Sherif to obtain the necessary permits before they would get involved.
According to Farghal, Sherif said the boats would be bought by an unnamed African country, but later claimed that they would be sold to Cyprus. Farghal claimed that Sherif also asked him for information on modifications Egypt had made to the boats so that he could inform his partners, presumably alleged Mossad agent Sergevic. "I refused to help him out, telling him this was sensitive military information, and asked him again for proper authorisation before I could help him out," Farghal said. But Sherif's lawyer, Said Abdel-Khaleq, produced messages faxed by Sherif and his foreign partners to Farghal's company, indicating that Farghal was fully aware of the details of the deal and that he was ready to cooperate.
In an unexpected move, Abdel-Khaleq turned around and asked the court to include both witnesses as suspects in the case, saying that "if my client is accused of communicating with foreign parties who are Mossad agents, then the two witnesses should also be named as suspects, since they dealt with the same people." Not surprisingly, Prosecutor Badawi objected, arguing that the two witnesses had refused to cooperate with Sherif without proper authorisation. He then accused the defence of "intimidating the witnesses."
Further muddying an already murky picture of Sherif El-Filali's dealings, his cousin Sami Hassan El-Filali, a top figure at the Ministry of Agriculture, told the court that Sherif had asked him for information on the Toshka project in southern Egypt and how he could invest nearly $300 million there. Sami vehemently denied that he had provided Sherif with any sensitive information, saying he only gave him public information produced by the ministry with the aim of luring investors to mega development projects.
Corroborating Hassan El-Filali's story about Sherif's interest in Toshka, Said Qassem, Egypt's trade attaché at the Egyptian embassy in Spain, told the court that Sherif had contacted him in Madrid and asked for information on the project, claiming that he had a similar investment in an agricultural project in Ukraine. Qassem said that Sherif had also asked for an appointment with the military attaché at the Egyptian embassy in Spain, and that he had given Sherif the attaché's phone number. Qassem said he was unaware whether the two met at a later time.
The defence re-submitted a request made during the first session to hear testimony from the head of the Egyptian National Security Service. He told the court that Sherif was kept for nearly two months at the service's headquarters -- in violation of legal provisions stating that any defendant must be taken to a public prison following his or her arrest. Abdel-Khaliq also claimed that a "confession" allegedly made by Sherif during his detention at the service's headquarters meant nothing because of the circumstances under which it was taken.
The prosecution argued intelligence officers cannot legally give testimony due to the sensitive nature of their jobs and the secrecy of the information they deal with and the request was refused. Another request to call in service experts who had examined computer disks and other material seized during El-Filali's arrest was also turned down.
Sherif El-Filali's case has resonated during a time when relations between Egypt and Israel are at their lowest point since the Camp David peace accord in 1978. In late October, President Hosni Mubarak decided to recall Egypt's ambassador to Israel in protest against the excessive use of force against the Palestinian civilians.
In 1997, an Israeli national of Druze origin, Azzam Azzam, and an Egyptian accomplice, Emad Ismail, were found guilty of spying for the Mossad. Azzam was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and Ismail was given a life term. In the next session of hearings in March, the court is expected to listen to the prosecution's case against Sherif and his alleged Russian partner.
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