The trial of an alleged Egyptian-Canadian spy was adjourned Wednesday to March 26 by a Cairo High State Security judge, who also refused the defendant's request to meet with Canadian embassy officials.
Mohamed el-Attar, 31, was stopped at Cairo's International Airport on Jan. 1. Egyptian intelligence charged him with being part of an espionage cell affiliated with Israel's Mossad. The defendant was locked up incommunicado for more than 30 days, during which time Egyptian authorities say he confessed to a State Security interrogator that he was a spy.
"My client is Egyptian, and a son of an Egyptian," Mr. el-Attar's lawyer, Ibrahim Basyouni, told reporters outside the courtroom, complaining that the authorities had not granted him access to his client in prison until now. "He is a patriot who would never sell his country to the Israelis. Accusations against him are fabricated."
Mr. Basyouni was permitted to meet with Mr. el-Attar privately in a side room for roughly 10 minutes on Wednesday, for the first time since the lawyer took up the case on Feb. 24.
In court, the lawyer insisted that Mr. el-Attar be brought out of the prisoner's cage so he could stand in front of the judge to answer a question about his religion. The government claimed Mr. el-Attar had converted from Islam to Christianity. "I'm a Muslim," Mr. el-Attar shouted in the courtroom. "There is only one god, and Mohammed is his prophet."
The lawyer presented a series of requests to the court that included access to legal papers related to the case. The lawyer also conveyed his client's request to meet with officials from the Canadian embassy in Cairo and with reporters.
While the judge agreed to the lawyer's demands regarding the legal documents, he refused any contact with foreigners. "This is an Egyptian court, and this is an Egyptian defendant," Judge Sayyed el-Gohary said sarcastically. "No ambassadors from Canada, Congo, Darfur, or what have you, could meet him."
Officials from the Canadian embassy present in court refused to comment, saying they were not authorized to give statements to the media.
Mr. el-Attar shouted from the prisoner's cage, denying the espionage accusations against him, repeating that he was "forced into confessions by a Mukhabarrat [secret service]agent named Nabil Mahmoud. He interrogated me using indecent methods. All he wanted was a promotion."