28 March - 3 April 2002
Issue No.579
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 March - 3 April 2002 Issue No.579 |
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Guilty on appeal
Acquitted of all charges in his first trial, Sherif El-Filali, accused of spying for Israel, was sentenced to a mammoth 15-year prison term on appeal. Shaden Shehab was in court
Security men shored up the entrance of the Bab El-Khalq courtroom as a concerned public waited to hear the verdict on 36-year-old Sherif El-Filali, an engineer accused of spying for Israel. Reporters, photographers and cameramen jockeyed for position to record the crucial moments of the case. Filali's parents sat beside the caged dock awaiting their son's arrival. Filali's mother, Soheir Mourad, concentrated on reading her copy of the Qur'an whilst his father fiddled with his mobile phone. A quarter of an hour before the hearing commenced, a heavy guard escorted Filali to the dock. He exchanged only a gesture with his parents.
The three-judge panel of the Supreme State Security Court took their seats at the podium. Silence. Presiding judge, Mohamed Shalabi, fixed his eyes on Filali, and said, "Sherif, you know very well what you have done. You have sold your country cheap." Judge Shalabi then read the ruling from his papers. "Sherif El-Filali is sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour." Gregory Schvitz, a Russian, charged with collaborating with the Israeli intelligence service Mossad and recruiting Filali, was also found guilty and sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison.
Filali was speechless. His father also was mute. His mother tried to storm the podium screaming as security men blocked her way, "This is unfair, God will never forgive you. This is a political game and my son was the scapegoat." Filali then muttered, as he was grabbed by security men and taken down from the dock, "It is all right mother, we trust in God."
The three judges immediately retired to their chambers.And Filali's mother continued to shout.
"I swear to God this is a conspiracy," she repeated. "If my son was a spy I would have demanded the death penalty against him myself, but my son would not betray his country." She continued, "I ask President [Hosni] Mubarak to stop this charade. If I meet him, I will persuade him of the innocence of my son."
"My son is innocent," Filali's father finally whispered. He, too, believed the trial was rigged and his son set up. "God will punish them. They have destroyed my son's life."
Upon hearing the verdict, Filali's mother shouted angry words while he was speechless (photos: Adel Anis)
Filali's 15-year sentence was less than the maximum 25-year penalty for spying in peacetime. Spying for an enemy country during war time is punishable by death.
Judge Shalabi told reporters the sentence was a minimum penalty. He said that Filali only informed the Egyptian intelligence services of his activities after he knew they suspected him. Filali was, therefore, motivated by a desire to escape punishment, not by any sense of guilt. "To gain a few dollars," the judge said. Filali is charged with providing the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, with information about Egypt's defence status, as well as the country's economic and political situation and its tourism industry with the aim of harming its national interests.
It was Filali's second trial. In June last year, he was acquitted on the grounds that he had turned himself in to Egyptian authorities when he realised he might have been involved in a crime.
However, State Security Prosecutor Mohamed Qandil had sharply criticised the earlier ruling. He insisted that Filali was "summoned for questioning by intelligence officers," and "did not go to them voluntarily." On this basis, state prosecutors asked for a retrial. The prosecutor-general approved the request and the retrial started last September.
Filali lived in Spain for nine years before he arrived in Cairo on 10 September, 2000. Three days later, he went -- or was summoned -- to the National Security Service for questioning, during which he was allowed to return home every day. Then on 27 September, police and state security prosecutors raided Filali's home in Heliopolis, arresting him and seizing two computers.
Under Emergency Law, effective since 1981, a person convicted by a State Security Court cannot appeal his sentence. But if the prosecution disapproves of a verdict, they can seek a retrial.
Filali's lawyer, Ahmed Said Abdel- Khaleq, said the only hope now was to appeal to President Mubarak for clemency.
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