CAIRO, 28 March 2005 — A court yesterday convicted an Egyptian of plotting to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak and of spying for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The State Security Court gave Mahmoud Mohammed Eid Dabous, an Egyptian citizen, life imprisonment for the assassination plot and an additional 10 years for espionage. Iran has denied any involvement in the case. Dabous’ co-defendant, Mahmoud Reda Hussein, an Iranian, was sentenced to life in absentia. “This is unfair. I’m innocent,” Dabous said after the sentence was announced.

A life sentence in Egypt means 25 years imprisonment. He told reporters that he had been promised a presidential pardon if he cooperated with the investigation.

Judge Adel Abdul-Salam Goma’a denied any such promise had been made. “He was involved in a vicious attempt to assassinate the leader of this nation in full disregard of the feelings of the Egyptian people,” Goma’a said in handing down the verdict.

Verdicts rendered by emergency tribunals cannot be appealed. Only Mubarak has the power to commute a sentence after the guilty party or his defense petition for clemency.

Dabous’ father fainted upon hearing the verdict. “My son is innocent,” cried his mother, insisting that her son “was regularly going to Tehran to foster closer ties between Egypt and Iran.” Iran has not had full diplomatic ties with Egypt since the Iranian revolution in 1979, when Tehran broke off relations because Egypt had signed a peace treaty with Israel.

Yesterday’s hearing was the first time Mubarak was named as the target of the plot. The charge sheet had said Dabous planned a “major” assassination in Egypt but did not specify the target. Police had also charged Dabous with providing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards with information to carry out terrorist attacks in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The Egyptian was accused of giving Iran details of oil installations at the Saudi port of Yanbu, where six Westerners were killed in a shooting rampage in May that was blamed on militants.

Dabous had worked at Yanbu, according to the prosecution, and was paid $150,000 for his Saudi and Egyptian information and given an extra $10,000 for the Yanbu details.

The former Iranian diplomat was sentenced for “taking part in a terrorist bid and an attempt to destabilize the Egyptian regime.”