Man held in Egypt over spying for Israel

Egypt has detained a man for allegedly spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, state-run Al-Ahram news website reported.

The Egyptian State Security Prosecution decided to detain the man for 15 days on charges of working for Mossad since 2011.

The prosecution said the defendant, an employee of a private company, realised earlier that his link to Mossad had been monitored, so he "confessed" to the Egyptian intelligence in 2012, hoping that the authorities would drop charges against him.

The "fake report", as described by the prosecution, did not work as the Egyptian side kept an eye on the suspect and monitored his movements among Arab and Western countries during 2012 and 2013 until the evidence for conviction was completed, Xinhua said.

The man was arrested with surveillance devices and other equipment for communication with the Israelis.