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Egyptian, Russian Face Charges of Spying for Israel
An Egyptian engineer and a former Russian officer faced charges of spying for Israel, Egypt's Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported November 28.
Maher Abdel Wahid, Egypt's prosecutor general, filed complaints in the day against the suspects to the supreme state security court, which summoned Mohamad al-Filali, the 34-year-old engineer.
The prosecuted Russian, identified as Gregory Gifens, who allegedly recruited Filali in Spain, was tried in absentia.
The espionage case came amid worsening relations between Egypt and Israel. Egypt, which was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state in 1979, recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv a week ago to protest against Israel's excessive use of force against the Palestinians.
Filali was arrested at home in a northeastern Cairo suburb on September 27. Gifens was said to be outside Egypt and his whereabouts were unknown.
The two were accused of "spying for the Jewish state's intelligence, Mossad, receiving funds from it for supplying information on the political, economic and military situation in Egypt, and harming the nation's interests."
Filali has received 5,000 U.S. dollars for his collaboration with the Israeli intelligence, MENA said.
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