Last update - 00:00 01/03/2007
Egyptian-Canadian accused of spying for Israel says he was tortured
By The Associated Press
An Egyptian-Canadian man accused of spying for Israel repeated his claims
Wednesday that he was forced to confess while authorities tortured him by electrocution and other extreme measures.
Mohammed el-Attar, 30, is on trial in the State Security Emergency Court on charges he was spying for Israel and harming Egyptian national interests. He has pleaded not guilty.
Three Israelis, who were charged alongside el-Attar, remain at large and are being tried in absentia. If convicted, el-Attar and his co-defendants face a maximum life sentence, with hard labor.
During Wednesday's hearing, the judge allowed el-Attar to remove his handcuffs and meet with his attorney, Ibrahim el-Desouqi. El-Desouqi urged the court to drop the confessions, saying they were extracted under torture.
He said, "an officer forced me to sign a statement after electrocuting me and forced me to drink my urine."
According to the prosecutors, el-Attar confessed to spying for Israel and gave a detailed account of his role in collecting information about Egyptians, and Arabs living in Turkey and Canada in return for money.
The alleged confessions, that have been published earlier this month in the independent and government newspapers here, claimed that el-Attar fled Egypt in 2001 and sought asylum with the UN refugee agency offices in Turkey after he was sentenced to three years in prison for bank fraud.
The published confessions alleged that el-Attar met the Israelis who gave him money in return for cooperating with them and writing reports about Egyptians and Arabs living in Turkey, and converted to Christianity in Istanbul.
The judge adjourned the trial until March 26.