By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian court on Wednesday convicted 26 men of belonging to a Hezbollah cell that was charged with planning to attack Israeli tourists in the Sinai Peninsula, fire on ships passing through the Suez Canal and smuggle weapons, supplies and people through tunnels to the Gaza Strip.
The men’s sentences ranged from life in prison to six months in jail. Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty for several defendants, including Muhammad Youssef Mansour, also known as Sami Shehab, who had been sent by Hezbollah to set up the cell in Egypt.
The prisoners maintained their innocence throughout the trial, saying they were just trying to help Hamas, the Hezbollah ally in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, across the Egyptian border.
But prosecutors argued successfully that the men had spied on ships in the Suez Canal and on tourist sites, with the aim of launching strikes against them. Those convicted include Egyptian, Palestinian, Lebanese and Sudanese citizens. Four were tried in absentia and remain at large.
“The verdict proves only that the case is politically motivated,” defence lawyer Abdul-Monem Abdel-Maqsud told al-Jazeera TV. “It only serves the Zionist entity which has welcomed the trial as it diverts attention away from calls to try their Gaza war criminals.”
The controversial case illuminated one of the Middle East’s great divides: between US-backed Egypt, with its peace treaty with Israel – and Hezbollah, which is supported by Syria and Iran. Hezbollah has sought to play it down since the trial began last summer but maintains that its only interest was backing Palestinian resistance to the Jewish state.
No appeal against the sentences is possible but there is already speculation in Cairo about possible presidential pardons as the Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, seeks to improve his long-strained relations with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad.
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, described the charges as revenge for the organisation’s denunciation of Egypt’s support for the Israeli blockade of Gaza. In December 2008, as Israel carried out its offensive in the Gaza Strip, Nasrallah accused Mubarak of “taking part in the crime” of Israel’s onslaught an called for the overthrow of his regime.
For more information, please see:
Guardian – Egypt Sentences 26 For Plotting Hezbollah Terrorist Campaign – 28 April 2010
VOA – Egypt Convicts 26 Men On Terror Charges – 28 April 2010
The New York Times – 26 In Egypt Are Convicted In Terror Plot – 28 April 2010
