The Higher Emergency State Security Court sentenced an Egyptian to 35 years in prison with hard labor yesterday after finding him guilty of spying for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and planning to assassinate Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak. The court gave Mahmoud Eid Mohamed Dabbous 10 years in prison for passing information to Iran to plan attacks on Saudi Arabia's Yanbu Petrochemical complex and another 25 years for plotting to kill President Mubarak and spying for a foreign state.

The court also sentenced Iranian diplomat Mohammad Reza Hossein Dost in absentia to 25 years in prison for recruiting Dabbous to enlist other Egyptians to carry out "acts that harm Egyptian and Saudi national interests" and plotting error attacks and political assassinations in Egypt. Dost worked in the Iranian interests office in Cairo. His whereabouts after he left Egypt in 2002 are unknown, but he was arrested in December 2004.

Presiding Judge Adel Abdul-Salam Joma'a noted in his ruling that Dost was convicted of spying on Egypt, seeking to damage its economic, political and national interests and trying to "align himself with the devil to assassinate the symbol of Egypt," President Hosni Mubarak.

The court denied that Dabbous made confessions under pressure about providing information to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and planning to kill the President. Dabbous had pleaded not guilty and claimed he was tortured into confessing to a variety of charges, including espionage and harming Egypt's national interests. Joma'a, who announced the sentences, also denied that Dabbous had been promised a presidential pardon if he cooperated with the investigation.

Note: The charges against Dabbous and Dost may well be correct, but it is equally probable that Dabbous was tortured to extract his confession. His trial may affect Egypt’s relations with Iran.

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