Qatar jails two Egyptians for life for spying: Cairo paper



CAIRO- Two Egyptians have been given life sentences in Qatar for allegedly spying for their country, Egypt's independent Al-Masri Al-Yom daily reported on Monday.
The newspaper, which said it had obtained documents of the investigation, said the two 49-year-olds were arrested in May 2009.



Qatar jails two Egyptians for life for spying: Cairo paper
It named them as Sayyed Afifi and Nabil Abdel Bassir, saying the former worked as a researcher at the Qatari interior ministry and the latter at Qatar's Al-Arab newspaper.
They were convicted of espionage aimed at "attacking the political position of the State of Qatar" and of collecting "top secret" information for transmission to a foreign country, namely Egypt, according to the newspaper.
Afifi was accused of giving interior ministry documents to an employee of the Egyptian embassy in Qatar, the paper said.
Both accused denied the charges but were given life prison sentences, the Egyptian newspaper said, adding that Qatar had allegedly imposed a news blackout on the case.
Relations between Qatar and Egypt have had their ups and downs. Cairo has repeatedly accused Doha of using its Al-Jazeera satellite channel to criticize Egypt, especially its relations with Israel.
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Monday, August 23rd 2010
AFP
           


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