A date of 2 October has been set for the first hearing in the case of two men, one Israeli and one Jordanian, accused of spying against Egypt for the Israeli spy agency Mossad.
Bashar Ibrahim Abu Zeid, a Jordanian citizen, and Ofir Harari, an Israeli citizen, are accused of attempting to intercept telecommunications networks in Egypt and direct calls to Israel, thereby damaging Egyptian national security.
Egyptian security services arrested Jordanian communications engineer Abu Zeid in March. He is alleged to have entered Egypt after the 25 January uprising to work as an agent for Mossad under cover of setting up in the telecommunications business in Egypt.
The second man, Ofer Harari, is accused of being a Mossad officer responsible for overseeing Abu Zeid's activities in Egypt. He is to be tried in absentia, having already fled Egypt.
According to Egyptian intelligence services, Abu Zeid and Harari agreed to intercept international calls coming into Egypt and to transfer them to Israel, allowing Israeli security services to eavesdrop on calls of relevance to Egypt's national security.
Investigations purportedly revealed that Harari requested Abu Zeid to provide recorded conversations from the Mobinil telephone company in order to pass them to the Israelis. The Jordanian suspect is alleged to have passed on a number of the recordings by way of a relay station operated by Mobinil in North Sinai Governorate.
Investigators also claim that Harari charged Abu Zeid with searching for Egyptian intelligence agents working in the telecommunications field and offering them his services, offering to sell them Israeli-made call transfer equipment for the benefit of Israeli intelligence services.
Abu Zeid was also charged with collecting data on certain employees working in the telecommunications field in Egypt, especially those working at Egyptian mobile operators and who traveled abroad for work, aiming to recruit suitable candidates to work for Mossad.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
