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ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, June 10 (AFP) - An Egyptian man was sentenced here Monday to 10 years in prison with hard labor for attempting to carry out acts of espionage on Israel's behalf, in the second such conviction this year.

Magdi Anwar Mohammed Tawfiq, a 52-year-old unemployed man, reacted by calling the sentence "illogical" when the judge pronounced the verdict at the High State Security Court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

The judge convicted Tawfiq of "attempted espionnage on behalf of a foreign country" as well as of falsifying official documents."

Tawfiq was referred to the court in April on charges of attempting to carry out "acts of espionage" on Israel's behalf, according to the charge sheet, and went on trial on May 11.

He allegedly sent faxes to the Israeli consulate in Alexandria offering them "important information about Egypt's political and diplomatic activities," according to court sources.

Tawfiq introduced himself as a minister plenipotentiary at the Egyptian foreign ministry who "asked to cooperate with the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) and to supply the Israelis with information undermining Egypt's political, diplomatic and economic status," the charge sheet said.

He had also been accused of falsifying official documents.

The sentences of the high state security court cannot be appealed.

Sherif al-Filali, a 35-year-old engineer, was sentenced in March to 15 years of hard labor after Cairo's high state security court convicted him of passing military secrets to the Mossad.- Nampa-AFP