Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Elder of ZiyonEgypt's public prosecutor on Wednesday referred nine people, including six foreigners, to trial for allegedly spying for Israel, the official MENA news agency reported.Given Egypt's incompetence in figuring out who is a spy, I doubt highly that Egypt caught any real spies.
Three Egyptians and six Israelis were referred to a criminal court, though it was unclear if any of them were in the country.
Four of the Israelis are said to be intelligence officers and two are Arab Israeli citizens, MENA said.
Investigations by the state security prosecutor showed the defendants had "passed on information to Israeli military intelligence services to harm Egypt's national security and the country's higher interests," MENA said.
The information pertained to the security situation in the Sinai peninsula and the presence and movements of extremist Islamist groups there, the agency reported.
The names of the alleged spies have been published in Arabic; the ones I figured out are Danny Ovadia, Aharon Danone, David Jacob, Shlomo Sofer, Israeli Arabs Abdullah Salim Ibrahim Darokheeba and Omar Harb Abu Jarad, and Egyptians Salameh Hamed Abu Jarad and Mohammed Ahmed Abu Jarad.
My guess is that the Abu Jarads of Rafah are related (or assumed to be related) to the Israeli Abu Jarad, and Egypt built a "case" based on that.
One also cannot discount the idea that Egypt is trying to divert attention from the upcoming June 30 anti-government demonstrations by trying the tried-and-true "unite around hating Israel" card.
