An Egyptian engineer who was convicted in 2002 of spying for Israel has died in jail in unclear circumstances while serving a 15-year sentence, Egyptian security sources said on Monday.
Sherif al-Filali, believed to be in his early 40s, had initially been found innocent of espionage in 2001, and his trial judge called him a true patriot because he turned himself in as soon as he realised he may have been involved in a crime.
But President Hosni Mubarak threw out the acquittal and ordered a retrial in an emergency state security court, where Filali was ultimately convicted in 2002 of trying to collect military information and data on Egyptian tourism and an agricultural project for Israel.
The security sources did not say how Filali died, and one said the circumstances of the death on Sunday remained unclear.
Court sources said at the time of the trial that a Russian man who was convicted of espionage in absentia recruited Filali in Spain to obtain secret information about Egypt for the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency. Israel has denied any involvement in the case.
Court documents said Filali shuttled between Egypt and Spain in 1999 before realising the information he was collecting was for Mossad. His 15-year sentence was less than the maximum 25-year penalty for spying in peacetime.
Rights groups had criticised the verdict as unfair, and the conviction could not be challenged as rulings in state security courts are not subject for appeal.
Filali’s arrest was announced shortly after Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv in November 2000, accusing Israel of using excessive force against Palestinians.
Egypt returned an ambassador to Israel in 2005. – Reuters