Cairo: An Egyptian minister on Sunday accused an editor of Al Jazeera television of helping leak classified intelligence documents in an espionage case involving deposed president Mohammad Morsi.
The accusation came a day before a trial of three journalists with the Doha-based broadcaster resumes in Cairo on charges of spreading false news and supporting Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Interior minister Mohammad Ebrahim charged that Ameen Al Serafi, secretary to Mursi, leaked the intelligence documents to Ebrahim Mohammad Hilal, who he said was Al Jazeera’s news editor and also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hilal allegedly facilitated a meeting between a Palestinian go-between, a Qatari official and an operative with an unspecified intelligence agency.
A source in Al Jazeera dismissed Ebrahim’s accusation.
“No one is going to take this seriously,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“Instead of picking up yet another silly conspiracy theory, the Egyptian authorities should be concentrating on releasing our journalists whom they have been holding unjustly for months.”
Ebrahim’s accusation comes against the backdrop of strained ties between Cairo and Doha since the ouster of Mursi last July. Qatar was a close ally of Mursi’s government and the Brotherhood.
Egypt’s military-installed authorities accuse Qatar of backing the Brotherhood, including through its Al Jazeera network.
The authorities shut down the Egyptian channel of the network on August 14 during a police crackdown on supporters of Mursi.
Mursi himself has been put on trial, and his Muslim Brotherhood designated a “terrorist organisation”.
In his espionage trial, prosecutors accuse Mursi and 35 others, including Brotherhood leaders, of conspiring with foreign powers, Palestinian militant movement Hamas and Shiite Iran to destabilise Egypt.
They face the death penalty.
The trial is currently suspended after defence lawyers requested that new judges be appointed in the case. An appeals court is to examine their request on April 9.
