Accused Israeli spy Sharif Al Filali will be sentenced on June 13 by Egypt's state security court, reported the weekly Middle East Times.
Filali was arrested on Sept. 27 at his home in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis on charges of having spied for Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.
The 34-year-old Egyptian civil engineer is charged, along with a Russian friend named Gregory Jifens, with gathering information on Egypt's industrial, agricultural and tourism projects, said the weekly.
According to the Egyptian Intelligence Department, Filali was hired by Mossad to find out information about military cooperation between Egypt and Iraq, and on the status of Russian-made weapons used by the Egyptian Army.
Under police interrogation, Filali confessed to the spying charges.
Filali received his Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1990, and continued his post-graduate work in Frankfurt, Germany.
It is in Germany that the government alleges that a Jewish woman named Irena recruited Filali. Israel has denied the allegation, as well as the charge that Filali worked for Mossad.
The state prosecutor is seeking the maximum penalty of 25 years in prison for Filali.
The case against the two alleged Mossad agents is the most recent since last summer, when state prosecutors told the media they were investigating the possibility that US citizen and human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim was a spy for the Americans, according to the weekly.
The last person to be jailed for spying for Israel was Azzam Azzam.
He was sentenced in 1997 to 15 years in prison.
On May 10, Danny Naveh, an Israeli government minister, visited Azzam in prison while in Cairo meeting with Egyptian officials. It was the first time that an Israeli minister had been allowed to meet with Azzam, who is currently held in the Liman Prison just south of Cairo.
Naveh was in Cairo for a one-day visit with presidential adviser Osama Al Baz – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
