Salesman spy?
An Egyptian lawyer accused of offering to spy for Israel will be tried before a state security court. Jailan Halawi reports
In the first case of espionage announced this year, Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed on Saturday referred Walid Ahmed Hashem to a state security court on charges of seeking to spy for Israel.
Little is known about the 29-year-old Hashem except that he is a lawyer currently in the midst of a financial crisis. He allegedly sought out officials at the Israeli Embassy in Egypt, offering to provide sensitive national security information in return for money.
The Israeli Embassy denied any knowledge of Hashem, insisting it had no links "in any way" to him.
According to sources close to the investigation, Hashem confessed to having approached the Israeli Embassy several times offering to sell them his services. Allegedly, Hashem's first attempted to contact the Israeli Embassy by telephone in April and offered to provide crucial information in return for money. But, sources said, officials at the embassy urged him to come to their premises to contact their security officer. Hashem tried a second time by faxing a message to the embassy stating he had called several times offering his services and if Israeli Embassy officials were interested they should meet him at a café in the Haram district in Giza, sources said.
The fax allegedly included information in exchange for $2,500 to be paid to Hashem at his meeting with the embassy's representative. However, it was not clear what kind of information Hashem provided. No date has been set for Hashem's trial.
Hashem has no right to appeal if he is convicted. Under Emergency Law, in force since 1981 following the assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat, verdicts passed down by state security courts cannot be appealed and are only subject to presidential discretion.
Although Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, relations between the two have been tense lately. In November 2000, Egypt recalled its ambassador from Israel in protest against Israel's handling of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. Since the signing of the peace treaty, Egypt has dismantled tens of spy rings working for Israel, which has only strained relations further.
Last year saw several cases of espionage. In November 2002, state security prosecutors announced the arrest of nine Egyptians on charges of spying for Israel. They allegedly used a travel agency as cover, and were also accused of smuggling job seekers into Israel over Egypt's borders. No further information about the nine has been released, and their whereabouts are currently unknown.
The biggest espionage case last year involved 35-year-old engineer Sherif El-Filali. El-Filali was sentenced last March to 15 years in prison with hard labour for spying for Israel. El-Filali was initially acquitted, but President Hosni Mubarak threw out the ruling and ordered a retrial. During the retrial, he was accused of trying to collect Egyptian military, agricultural and tourist information for Israel. Prosecutors said he was recruited by Cevets, the Spanish intelligence service. Court documents said El-Filali travelled between Spain and Egypt in 1999 before authorities realised he was collecting information for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.
In June 2002, a state security court convicted 52-year-old unemployed Anwar Mohamed Tawfiq of offering to spy for Israel and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. The Egyptian security services had accused Tawfiq of forging documents suggesting he was a minister plenipotentiary and of offering to provide sensitive information to the Israeli consulate in Alexandria. While acknowledging he sent a fax to the consulate, Tawfiq claimed it was only an attempt to obtain the addresses of international agencies because he wanted to offer testimony in an international case that had nothing to do with Egypt.
