AFP: Egypt said on Tuesday it has charged an Iranian
diplomat and an Egyptian national over a plot to assassinate an unidentified public figure.
Egyptian Mahmud Aid Dabbus is accused of being paid
50,000 dollars by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to kill the unnamed target and of spying for the Islamic republic,
charges that carry a possible 25-year prison term. AFP
CAIRO – Egypt said on Tuesday it has charged an Iranian diplomat and an Egyptian national over a plot to assassinate an unidentified public figure.
Egyptian Mahmud Aid Dabbus is accused of being paid 50,000 dollars by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to kill the unnamed target and of spying for the Islamic republic, charges that carry a possible 25-year prison term.
His alleged accomplice was identified as Mohammad Reda Doust, who served in the Iranian interests section in Cairo but left the country about a year ago for another post and will be tried in absentia.
The charges were announced by prosecutor general Maher Abdel Wahed, who told a news conference that Dabbus had been under surveillance for some time and was on the verge of carrying out a “terrorist operation” in Egypt when he was arrested nearly a month ago.
The attorney general said Dabbus had provided Iran with information on “political, economic and social conditions in Saudi Arabia”, as well as on foreigners living in the kingdom.
The suspect used to work in Saudi Arabia, according to the charge sheet.
Dabbus was also accused of providing Iran with details on a petrochemical facility at the Saudi port of Yanbu, where six Westerners were killed in a shooting rampage in May that was blamed on Islamist militants.
