CAIRO Prosecutors on Sunday accused a prominent Egyptian-American human rights activist of espionage by giving a talk in the United States six years ago, his lawyer said.
"They accused him yesterday of espionage for the United States with aim of harming the military, political and economic interests of Egypt," said Farid al-Deeb, lawyer for Saadeddin Ibrahim who had been in detention for more than a month without charge.
"The basis of the accusation is that on April 28, 1994 he attended a conference organized by the U.S. Ministry of Defense and gave a talk on his research into Islamic extremism in Egypt," said Al-Deeb after attending sessions in which prosecutors questioned Ibrahim for several hours on Saturday and Sunday.
"Why does Egypt do military maneuvers with them (the U.S.) and take aid from them, then?" Al-Deeb quoted Ibrahim as replying to prosecutors.
Egypt is the second largest recipient of annual U.S. aid.
Court sources said Ibrahim, who has dual Egyptian-U.S. nationality, was also accused of accepting Israeli funding to do research into the position of Egyptian and Arab opposition groups on peace with Israel.
Espionage, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, is the most serious of a series of accusations on which state security prosecutors have questioned Ibrahim, founder of the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Social and Development Studies, since he was arrested with his secretary on June 30.
Fifteen others from the center have been detained.
One has been released.
Call for Mubarak's Intervention With the espionage accusation, "the investigation has taken a serious turn", Al-Deeb said. "The intervention of President Mubarak is needed to end this farce." He said the 1994 conference was attended by 11 officials of the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, including the ambassador, current sports minister Ali el-Din Hilal, two army generals, a prominent diplomat and analysts of a state-owned think-tank.
Ibrahim was initially accused of defaming Egypt's image by receiving European Union money without government permission to make a documentary encouraging voters to take part in upcoming parliamentary elections, and of forging ballot papers.
He was accused two weeks ago of inciting sectarian strife, and defaming Egypt, by writing about Christian-Muslim violence.
Al-Deeb said Ibrahim, a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo, was accused on Friday of "bribing" state television officials into collecting research information.
Court sources said authorities have sped up investigations of Ibrahim because of criticism of his detention in the American press last week.
Prosecutors could this week refer him to a military court, a form of justice normally reserved for suspected Islamic militants, they added.
The U.S. State Department has said it was "deeply disappointed" about Ibrahim's continued detention.
In a statement issued last week, Ibrahim accused the government of detaining him to ruin his plans to monitor the November elections and pressure the government over ballot-rigging.
(Reuter)