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CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has charged an Egyptian who holds Canadian citizenship and three Israelis with spying for Israel, a state prosecutor said on Saturday.
High State Security Prosecutor Hisham Badawi said the Egyptian, Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar, 31, had been arrested and charged. The rest of the suspected spy ring, who are in Turkey and Canada, were charged in absentia.
Badawi said the Israelis recruited Attar while he was living in Turkey in August 2001 and that intelligence agents assisted him in obtaining a residency permit in Canada under a fake name and found him work in a bank.
Attar was paid to spy on Egyptians and Arabs during his time in Turkey and Canada and used his position in the bank to obtain information on specific accounts, Badawi added.
He was also expected to scout and approach potential recruits, according to Badawi, who said Attar was paid $56,000 between August 2001 and January 1, 2007, when he was arrested at Cairo airport as he entered Egypt for a family visit.
Badawi said Attar had been under investigation since January 2002 and would stand trial before a High State Security Emergency Court.
"We only know what we have heard in the media. I am not aware of anything other than what has been reported," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told Reuters in Jerusalem.
Bernard Nguyen, a spokesman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, said the government was aware of the allegations against the Canadian citizen but declined to give further information, citing privacy concerns.
In 1996, Egypt detained Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Arab textile worker, and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for spying for Israel. Egypt said Azzam passed messages in women's underwear using invisible ink.
Both Azzam and Israel denied the charges. He was released after serving eight years, as part of a deal that included the release of six Egyptian students in Israel.
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