Associated Press
CAIRO: A court has sentenced a policeman to six months in prison after convicting him of insubordination for refusing to guard the Israeli embassy, a court official said Sunday.
Mohammed Khalaf Hasan, 38, was imprisoned after the Cairo Military Court for Police affairs pronounced its verdict this morning, accusing Hasan of noncompliance with orders by his commander, the court official said speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give statements to the media.
Hasan was ordered to guard the Israeli embassy in early February, but he refused take the assignment.
The police officer, who is from the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, went on a hunger strike right after he was ordered to guard the embassy.
Although Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, many Arabs and Egyptians view Israel as an enemy. Fighting between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah guerrillas last summer has heightened anti-Israeli sentiment in the region.
The recent violations of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound have also contributed to those sentiments.
