EL ARISH, Egypt, Jan 29 (AFP) - An Egyptian court on Saturday rejected claims by relatives of Egyptians killed or tortured during the 1967 war that Israel should pay 70 million pounds (12 million dollars) in compensation.
The plaintiff's lawyer Mahmud Said Lotfi said he would appeal against the court's dismissal of the case.
He had asked El Arish court in northern Sinai to order Israel and its current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pay the compensation for having "tortured or buried alive Egyptian soldiers during and after" the June 1967 war which ended with the Israeli army's total occupation of the Sinai.
The court said Said Lotfi had "not submitted official documents proving that Sharon had tortured and killed Egyptian prisoners" and had been content merely to "present cuttings from newspapers and magazines, along with personal papers of martyrs (victims), which did not constitute sufficient proof."
It ordered the plaintiff to pay a fine of 500 Egyptian pounds for "lack of evidence".
The lawyer said he would ask the Egyptian authorities, especially the defence ministry, to give him access to official archives to enable him to support his case.
01/29/2005 17:53 GMT - AFP