An Egyptian court has convicted an Egyptian man of offering to spy for Israel and sentenced him to 10 years in jail.

The court in Alexandria said Anwar Mohamed Tawfiq, a 52-year-old unemployed man, had sought "to spy for another country... in order to undermine Egypt's national interests".

The verdict is unjust and not based on any evidence

Anwar Mohamed Tawfiq

Tawfiq, who had pleaded not guilty, was tried under Egypt's emergency laws - under which defendants have no right of appeal but can petition the president to overturn the ruling.

The verdict comes nearly three months after another court in Cairo jailed an Egyptian engineer for 15 years for spying for Israel.

Emergency court

The Egyptian security services had accused Tawfiq of forging documents suggesting he was an Egyptian diplomat. They said he had contacted the Israeli consulate in Alexandria with offers to provide sensitive information.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty

Tawfiq acknowledged he had sent a fax to the consulate, but said he was only trying to get the addresses of international agencies.

After the verdict was announced, he told reporters from behind bars in the courtroom dock that the ruling had been "unjust and not based on any evidence".

"All that I wanted was to offer testimony about an international case that had nothing to do with Egypt," he said.

The case was tried in an emergency security court, under special laws put in place after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

In March, a court in Cairo sentenced another Egyptian national for spying for Israel.

Sherif al-Filali, a 35-year-old engineer, was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour.

He was initially acquitted of the same charges, but the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, threw out the ruling and ordered a retrial.

Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

Egypt recalled its ambassador from Israel in November 2000 in protest against Israel's handling of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

Israel has kept its ambassador in Egypt.