Jordanian, Israeli Face Egypt Espionage Trial

A Jordanian and an Israeli are to go on trial in Egypt on charges of spying for the Jewish state's intelligence services, the state news agency MENA said on Sunday.

The telecoms engineer from Jordan and the Israeli "officer with the Mossad" spy agency are to go on trial in Egypt's state security court on charges of having worked "to damage the national interests of Egypt," it said.

The Jordanian arrested in April has since been questioned on "espionage activities carried out with his Israeli accomplice on the run for the Israeli intelligence services," it said.

The Israeli had allegedly tasked the Jordanian with recruiting Egyptians working in the telecoms sector "to obtain technical data," and they had devised a system to bug telephone calls in Egypt.

It was not immediately clear when the trials would begin.

On June 12, Egypt arrested U.S.-Israeli dual national Ilan Grapel on suspicion of spying for Israel, which denied any such charge.