CAIRO, Aug 20 (Aswat Masriya) – The Supreme State Security Court sentenced on Wednesday a Jordanian national and an Israeli soldier to prison over espionage charges.

Bashar Abu Zeid, a Jordanian communications engineer was sentenced to 10 years in prison while Israeli Ofir Herari was sentenced to life in prison. Herari has fled the country before the prosecutor general referred the case to trial in August 2011; he was being tried in absentia.

The defendants were charged with intercepting international calls from Egypt and re-routing them to Israel to enable the latter to monitor them. They were also accused of scanning security forces' positions and reporting them to Israel in a manner which harms Egypt's national security.