The Egyptian security prosecutor on Sunday demanded the maximum 25-year sentence for a man accused of spying for Israel, reports said.
A source quoted by AFP said that the prosecutor, Hisham Badawi, called for the maximum penalty for Sherif Al Filali, who is accused of providing the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad with military, political, economic and tourism information about Egypt in 1999 and 2000, the Cairo-based Al Gomhuria daily reported.
The Egyptian Higher State Security Court began Sunday the retrial of the defendant, who is also accused of harming Egypt's national interests and receiving bribes from abroad.
The court session was headed by Mohammed Abdel Mageed Shalabi and included Abdel Azim Azzam and Mohammed Al Sawi as members.
In early September, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to approve a security court's acquittal of Filali, and subsequently accepted a prosecutor's call for a retrial.
An appeals court ordered that Filali, 35, be arrested again, and set September 19 as the opening for a new trial in another branch of the state security court.
Filali was tried, along with a Russian who was absent from the proceedings, on charges that he collected information for Mossad on Egyptian military equipment, tourism and agriculture.
But the court acquitted Filali under a law absolving those who come forward before an investigation, although it said the truth of the charges against him had been proven.
According to AFP, the Filali was arrested on September 27 of last year but then freed after his acquittal in June. He was returned to jail upon the announcement of the new trial – Albawaba.com
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