Photo left: In this unrelated case a torture victim is suspected of a traffic violation. Police forcibly sodomized him with a stick. After the film was released in November 2006 human rights groups were amazed that he still received a three month sentence for "resisting authority." Photos below from left: Mohammed al-Attar enters the court, talking to the Judge and sitting in court. Mohammed al-Attar, a thirty one year old who holds joint Egyptian-Canadian nationality, was sentenced today to fifteen years for espionage. He claimed his confession to have acted as a spy for the Israeli intelligence services was extracted under torture. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and other organizations have repeatedly critised the Egyptian government for its' routine use of torture in obtaining confessions from prisoners. The Egyptian government claims that the confession is genuine and that Mohammed targeted vulnerable poor and gay expatriate Arabs while he was living abroad. Quite what information these individuals were allegedly able to reveal is unclear. According to the bizarre confession he abandoned Islam and converted to Christianity before selling information on these impoverished young men to Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, for $56,000. Mohammed was arrested when arriving at Cairo airport from Canada on 1st January this year. He had allegedly obtained Canadian nationality by claiming persecution as a gay man in Egypt. As he entered the court this morning, flanked by several security guards, he flashed an optimistic v-victory sign. However the court session lasted barely ten minutes. Declaring that "the defendant sold his country and himself to the devil" the judge sentenced him to fifteen years. Newspaper reports prior to the case branded him a sex pervert, apostate and traitor. Three adjectives that will put his life in an Egyptian prison in grave jeopardy. |