Jailan Halawi attempts to piece together the story of Mohamed Essam El-Attar, the Egyptian-Canadian accused of spying for Israel The case of former Al-Azhar student, 31-year- old Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Essam El-Attar, opens at a Cairo State Security Court on 24 February. It is unclear whether El-Attar, or his co-defendants, will have legal representation during the hearings. Arrested after arriving from Canada on 1 January, El-Attar faces charges of espionage along with three Israeli cohorts, allegedly officers with the Israeli Intelligence Service, Mossad. The three, who remain abroad, have been identified as Daniel Levi, Kemal Kosba and Tuncay Bubay. The last two are believed to hold dual Turkish-Israeli citizenship. No one has had direct access to El-Attar. His former lawyer, Mohamed Ragab El-Assal, announced earlier this week he was abandoning his client's case and notified the Bar Association to that effect. "At first I thought his confessions were made under duress but after reviewing them [confessions] I realised there is no point in fighting a losing battle. It has become evident that the suspect is [somehow] involved... and there is no way I will ever consent to defend a traitor," said El-Assal. El-Assal, El-Attar's neighbour, said earlier that he would drop the case should he be presented with evidence incriminating his client. Excerpts of the interrogation transcript leaked to the press included details of El-Attar's confession. News reports also revealed the existence of eye-witnesses whose reports tipped off the Egyptian authorities about El-Attar's activities, after which he was placed under surveillance. The details published so far, however, fail to explain exactly why El-Attar first left Egypt. Did he do so because of his unorthodox sexual tendencies, religious beliefs or because he had failed to pay an IOU? El-Attar allegedly told interrogators that while in his teens he was the victim of rape, after which he fell into a homosexual lifestyle. To make life more difficult, El-Attar, who is a Muslim and former Al-Azhar student, felt his religious beliefs leaning towards Christianity. To make matters worse, in 2001 he failed to pay an IOU for a rented car he had crashed, following which a misdemeanour court handed him a three-year jail sentence. The prison term was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back. El-Attar decided it was time to flee his homeland, in search of a future more suited to his inclinations. But was that ever fulfilled? El-Attar says that after leaving Egypt in August 2001 for Turkey, he met an Iraqi national who took him to the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul, saying they would help him find a job and apply for residence and work permits. While it is unclear from the alleged confession whether El-Attar resisted the Iraqi national's suggestion, he appears to have been either very desperate or naïve to seek a job through the Israeli Embassy. The story continues that after arriving at the embassy, El-Attar was introduced to an Israeli girl -- identified as Janet -- who after a brief chat left him with David Levi. Janet, it later transpired, was in charge of sending him cheques. After El-Attar successfully completed various tests Levi allegedly told him that his help was needed to "establish the state of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates". He would receive help to achieve his dreams in return for helping Israel "reach Arabs of different nationalities". Further instructions specified that El-Attar should approach Arabs of Egyptian, Iraqi, Syrian, Jordanian, Libyan and Lebanese origin, which he did by frequenting places where these communities gathered. Meanwhile, El-Attar converted to Christianity and changed his name from Mohamed to Joseph Ramsy El-Attar, before going to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) seeking asylum because he feared he would be persecuted in Egypt. Since Turkey does not recognise asylum seekers from the Middle East, El-Attar was granted asylum in Canada in 2002. Under his cover as a Coptic convert, he was instructed to mingle among the Coptic expatriate community and Christians frequenting churches, though news reports do not say why he was assigned such a mission. While records from the UNHCR show his asylum claim was deemed genuine, and federal Canadian agencies agreed with the assessment, the Canadian Embassy in Cairo has yet to say whether it will intervene in the case. Six months after his recruitment, and before moving him to his next mission, Levi reportedly blindfolded El-Attar and escorted him to a remote area where, after subjecting him to a lie detector test, he was informed that his mission in Ankara was over and that as a Mossad agent his second assignment would be in Vancouver. In Vancouver, El-Attar is said to have been approached by his second Israeli officer, Kemal Kosba. Kosba revealed himself by uttering the previously-agreed code phrase: "and how is Father Jack". The officer helped his agent find a job at a restaurant in Vancouver, from which position he filed reports on 12 of his fellow Arabs, four of them Egyptians. Kosba also helped El-Attar move to another restaurant owned by an Egyptian-Turkish citizen, where he is alleged to have recruited the owner's son. Less than two months after arriving in Vancouver, Kosba instructed El-Attar to move to Toronto, home to many Egyptian expatriates. El-Attar then met his third and last officer, Tuncay Bubay, who helped him obtain a diploma in banking. He then began working at the Toronto CICB, a job that exposed him to many potential recruits. Last November El-Attar is supposed to have told Tuncay he wanted to stop working for the Mossad. In response, Tuncay threatened to report him to both the Canadian and Egyptian authorities -- which worked well to persuade him otherwise. El-Attar then attended a celebration at a synagogue in Toronto where he was told officials in Israel would like to meet him in person to inform him of his next task. Reports on his visit to Egypt did not clarify the motive behind his trip. Was he instructed by his handlers, or did he simply miss his family? El-Attar was arrested upon his arrival at Cairo International Airport and taken to an unknown destination. His present whereabouts remain unknown.
