Last update - 00:00 03/02/2007
Egypt charges 3 Israelis, Egyptian student with spying for Israel
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent, and Agencies
Egypt's State Security Prosecutor, Hisham Badawi, has charged an Egyptian student, Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar, and three Israelis with spying for Israel.
Attar, who also holds Canadian citizenship, is under arrest, while warrants have been issued for the Israelis.
The three Israelis were identified by the state news agency, MENA, as Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosba and Tuncay Bubay. Kosba and Bubay also hold dual Turkish citizenship, MENA said.
Attar, a student at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, was arrested January 1 after returning to Egypt from a family visit abroad. He has been variously described as 26 and 31 years old.
He reportedly moved to Turkey in 2001, where he met the Israelis, who allegedly recruited him to provide information about Egypt and about other Arabs living in Turkey.
Later, his Israeli handlers allegedly asked him to move to Canada, which he did in 2003. He allegedly used his position at a bank in Canada to obtain information about specific accounts for his handlers, who paid him a total of $65,000 from August 2001 until his arrest.
Israeli sources denied any knowledge of the affair. "We only know what we have heard in the media," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. A message left with the Israeli Embassy in Cairo was not returned.