Egyptian denies spying in Toronto
Cairo claims he was Mossad agent
Feb 25, 2007 04:30 AM
Jano Charbel in Cairo and Isabel Teotonio in Toronto
An Egyptian charged with spying on local Arabs in Toronto for the Israeli secret service denied the allegations yesterday in a Cairo courtroom and claimed a confession was forced out of him.
Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar, a 31-year-old Canadian citizen, flashed a victory sign with his fingers and pleaded not guilty on the first day of his trial.
"I was pressured by the security apparatuses into giving confessions," Attar told the panel of three judges at the Emergency State Security Court.
"I deny all charges levelled against me from beginning to end."
Attar was arrested at Cairo airport on Jan.1 after arriving from Canada to visit family. However, news of the arrest was only made public earlier this month when Egyptian authorities said Attar had confessed to being a spy for the Mossad, while living in Turkey and Canada. According to prosecutors, he also implicated three other men in the alleged spy ring – two of whom were recently reported to be living in Toronto.
Three Israelis – Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosba and Tuncay Bubay – were charged with Attar, but they remain at large and are being tried in absentia. Egypt has asked Interpol to arrest them, while Israel has dismissed the charges as baseless.
Attar is charged with harming Egyptian national interests by supplying the Mossad with information; receiving $56,000 in Canadian and U.S. currencies for information on Arabs and Egyptians living in Turkey and Canada and providing his co-accused with that information.
The bizarre case against Attar has been outlined in Egyptian reports and a government dossier of more than 300 pages.
He is alleged to have converted from Islam to Christianity around the time he became a spy; moved to Canada where he, an admitted homosexual, married four men and used his job at a CIBC branch in Toronto to spy on financial transactions, including some that involved a Saudi Prince. Attar is also alleged to have recruited Egyptians, Syrians and Iraqis in Canada to work for the Mossad.
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