CAIRO - The defense lawyer for an Egyptian-Canadian charged with spying for Israel asked the Cairo court on Wednesday to drop the charges against his client, saying his confession was made under duress while being interrogated.

Such an investigation was illegal and not based on material evidence, attorney Ibrahim el-Basyuni said.

Mohammed el-Attar, 30, has been on trial since February 24 at the State Security Emergency Court in the Egyptian capital, and pleaded not guilty. Three Israelis charged alongside el-Attar are being tried in absentia. If convicted, the accused face a maximum life sentence, with hard labor.

	Advertisement

He gave no other details of what he described as duress but el-Attar had in an earlier session told the court he confessed because he was tortured with electric shocks. However, Prosecutor Hani Hamoodah insisted the defendant made the confession freely and without coercion.

According to 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. He also received instructions from the three Israelis, said to be intelligence officers, to recruit Christian Egyptian immigrants in Canada using money and sex.

But el-Basyuni said el-Attar's family is known for its loyalty to the country. His father was a senior army officer and his brother is still serving in the army, the lawyer said.

The court adjourned to April 21 when it would issue a verdict. Verdicts are final under Egyptian laws and can only be overturned by a presidential pardon.

El-Attar, a former student at the Islamic Al-Azhar university in Cairo, was arrested on January. 1 as he returned from abroad to visit his family in Egypt.

In the alleged confession El-Attar claimed he 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 issuing a bad check. It also alleged el-Attar converted to Christianity in Istanbul and was then sent to Canada, where he delivered more spy reports about Christian Egyptians.

El-Basyuni denied el-Attar had converted or that he received any money from Israel, saying his client supported himself by working in a bank in Canada.