An Egyptian man charged with spying for Israel stunned the court Tuesday by praising Israel for its advanced technology and claiming the documents he had passed on were so outdated they posed no threat to Egyptian security.
Mohammed Sayed Saber, 35, a nuclear engineer with Egypt's atomic agency, has been charged with stealing secret documents and giving them to the Mossad in exchange for $17,000 and with the aim of harming Egyptian national security, the prosecutor said.
An upbeat Saber appeared before the judge in a white prison jumpsuit at the start of his trial Tuesday, smiling and flashing a victory sign to media crammed into a dusty Cairo courtroom.
"I don't hide my admiration of Israel ... It has reached a very high technological and scientific level," Saber said in court. "To seek to benefit from Israel scientific expertise, is not shameful or wrong ... They are a very organized and pragmatic society with definite goals, unlike chaotic societies."
"I don't have animosity toward the Israeli people. Why should I? The fact that we had wars against Israel doesn't mean that we remain enemies forever," added Saber, who has never visited the Jewish state.
Saber's pro-Israeli speech was so unusual that Judge Mohammed Reda Shwakat, presiding over the three-judge panel at south Cairo state security court, called him from the defendant's box to the bench, where he then questioned him for almost four hours in the presence of three defense lawyers.
This guy got balls.
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