17 - 23 May 2001
Issue No.534
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 17 - 23 May 2001 Issue No.534 |
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Guilty of stupidity?
As the judgement nears, Nadia Abou El-Magd reports on a desperate attempt by the defence to paint a picture of a bungler who couldn't possibly have been involved in espionage
Sherif El-Filali, bespectacled and wearing a white T-shirt and white trousers, listened intently as Magdi Shohdi, military attaché at the Egyptian Embassy in Madrid, was testifying before the court on Sunday. The testimony could be El-Filali's last hope to prove he is an arms dealer -- albeit not a very good one -- but definitely not a spy. El-Filali, 35, was accused of spying for Israel, arrested last September and put on trial earlier this year.
Al-Filali
Shohdi told the heavily guarded and crowded State Security courtroom in Abassiya that El-Filali wanted to buy eight second-hand missile boats, models 205 and 206, from Egypt's arsenal for a British company that would presumably sell them to an African country. El-Filali introduced himself to Shohdi as the representative of Pan Africa, described as an affiliate company based in Madrid.
The Egyptian diplomat asked El-Filali to fax him his data and requests, which he did. Shohdi forwarded the fax to the Egyptian Defence Ministry. "He kept asking whether the Egyptian side had agreed," Shohdi told the court. The ministry never replied.
Responding to prosecutor Mohamed Helmi Qandil, Shohdi said he did not know how El-Filali acquired the details and numbers of the missile boats. "These are Russian-made weapons that are still operative. No country would sell weapons that it is still using."
Shohdi testified that El-Filali did not mention any intelligence service, but merely talked about an arms sale.
El-Filali's lawyer, Ahmed Abdel-Khaleq, has been demanding that Shohdi testify since the trial opened on 13 January to prove that his client is not a spy but an arms dealer. The lawyer did not mind describing El-Filali as "stupid and a crook," but not a spy.
"If he were a spy, why would he go to the military attaché and give him data about himself and those he is working for?" Abdel-Khaleq asked the court. The deal El-Filali discussed with the military attaché was an "arms deal, be it legitimate or illegitimate," he added. "The military attaché's testimony is crucial and is in our favour," Abdel-Khaleq told Al-Ahram Weekly after the three-hour session was adjourned until 13 June when the judgement will be handed down.
The prosecution has accused El-Filali, an engineer and businessman, of "communicating with [spying for] a foreign country, receiving an international bribe and criminal complicity." Prosecutor Qandil said that El-Filali had confessed to the charges in the course of his interrogation and demanded a life [25 years] sentence.
El-Filali was said by prosecutors to be a partner of Gregory Schvitz, a former Russian intelligence officer and currently an Israeli agent, who recruited him to work for the Mossad. Schvitz is on trial in absentia.
According to the prosecution, El-Filali was supposed to take photos of military sites in Egypt, provide information on Russian weapons in the Egyptian arsenal and how they were upgraded and also on dealings between Egypt and Iraq. The Toshka mega-project for desert reclamation in southwestern Egypt was also part of El-Filali's alleged spy work.
On Sunday, Qandil charged that the defendant "gave Israel information about Egypt's military, economic, political and tourism situation with the intention of harming the country's national interests."
El-Filali's lawyer challenged the prosecution on the grounds that his client had informed the authorities of his activities three months before his arrest. Moreover, Abdel-Khaleq argued that El-Filali's confessions should not be taken into acount because they were made under "psychological pressure" and at the headquarters of the Egyptian National Security Service, "in violation of the law which states that any defendant should be taken to a public prison after his arrest."
El-Filali retracted the confession during the trial but the prosecutor insisted that "a confession is still the best piece of evidence."
Attorney Abdel-Khaleq handed the court a video recording of a recent Egyptian TV interview with Mohamed Bassiouni, Egypt's ambassador in Israel, in which he said that the Israeli secret service Mossad relies on the Internet, not on people, for 98 per cent of the information it gets.
Abdel-Khaleq also inquired that if his client had indeed taken photos of military sites, why were they not included in the dossier of the case.
Going on the offensive, Abdel-Khaleq insisted that El-Filali acted to attract foreign investments to the Toshka project. "For this he should have been awarded a medal, not put on trial and accused of espionage," he added.
"I challenge the prosecution to prove that the Mossad is involved in this case," Abdel-Khaleq said, requesting the court to release his client immediately.
"This case is related to special circumstances that are almost unique," said Abdel-Khaleq, alluding to the eight-month-old Al-Aqsa Intifada and its impact on Egyptian--Israeli relations, at their lowest in years. President Hosni Mubarak recalled Ambassador Bassiouni in November in protest against Israeli brutality against Palestinians.
"The case drags on while we look bad, Israel and [Ariel] Sharon look ugly and the Intifada continues," Abdel-Khaleq added.
Azam Azam, an Israeli national of Druze origin, and an Egyptian accomplice, Emad Ismail, were found guilty of spying for the Mossad in 1997. Azam was sentenced to 15 years in jail and Ismail was given a life sentence.
If found guilty, El-Filali and his accomplice could be sentenced to 25 years in prison with hard labour. According to the Emergency Law, in effect since 1981, the sentences handed down by State Security Courts cannot be appealed.
El-Filali kissed his mother on the cheek as he left the cage on his way out of the courtroom. "I never suspected my son," El-Filali's mother, Soheir Murad, told the Weekly. If he were guilty, "I would have killed him myself," she said.
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