Egyptian court convicts 2 in Mubarak plot
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-28 12:07

A security court on Sunday convicted an Egyptian of plotting to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak and spying for Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, then sentenced him to 35 years in prison.

A fugitive Iranian diplomat also was convicted in absentia at the end of a trial that further strained relations between the two Muslim countries.

Egyptian national Mahmoud Mohammed Eid Dabous, left, flashes a V sign as he is accompanied by an Egyptian policeman before his verdict at a Cairo court, Sunday, March 27, 2005. Dabous was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak, and an additional 10 years for passing information to Iran to plan attacks on Egypt and Saudi Arabia.[AP]

The State Security Court gave Mahmoud Mohammed Eid Dabous, an Egyptian citizen, a life sentence — which means 25 years in Egypt — for the assassination plot and an additional 10 years for espionage. Iran has denied any involvement in the case.

Dabous' co-defendant, Mahmoud Reda Hussein, an Iranian, was convicted in absentia and sentenced to life in prison.

"This is unfair. I'm innocent," Dabous said.

He said he confessed after being tortured in police custody.

"I shall complain to God about the injustice done to me," he said.

Dabous told reporters he had been promised a presidential pardon if he cooperated with the investigation, but Judge Adel Abdul-Salam Goma'a denied that.

"He was involved in a vicious attempt to assassinate the leader of this nation in full disregard of the feelings of the Egyptian people," Goma'a said in handing down the verdict. Dabous and Hussein, he said, did not know "the real love Egyptians have for their leader."

Sunday's hearing was the first time Mubarak was named as the target of the plot.

The charge sheet said Dabous planned a "major" assassination in Egypt but did not specify the target. Police also charged Dabous with providing the Revolutionary Guards with information to carry out terrorist attacks in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The prosecution said Dabous tried to gather information about Mubarak's residence in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik and send it to the Revolutionary Guard.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi on Sunday rejected the verdicts against both defendants as "ridiculous." The spokesman said Egypt had "set up a kangaroo court just to please Israel."

After the hearing, Dabous' brother, Ayman, said the defendant traveled to Iran in 1999 to attend a cultural conference with the knowledge of the Egyptian authorities. Later he tried to set up an Egyptian-Iranian friendship association.

"What he was doing was in daylight. (The authorities) were aware of each step he took," the brother said.

Dabous' mother and sisters wept after the verdict.

Relations between Iran and Egypt have been tense since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Iran was offended when Egypt gave sanctuary to its ousted shah after the revolution.

Egypt repeatedly has accused Iran of supporting the militants who killed President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

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