http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1102928.html
Last update - 17:06 26/07/2009
Egypt refers accused Hezbollah operatives to emergency court
By News Agencies
Tags: Hezbollah, Egypt, Israel News
Egyptian prosecutors have referred 26 men accused of links to Hezbollah
to an emergency state security court on terrorism and espionage-related
charges, a prosecution statement said on Sunday.
The prosecutor's statement Sunday charged the suspects, led by Hezbollah
operatives Mohamed Qublan and Sami Chehab, with spying for a foreign group,
planning attacks against tourists and shipping in Suez Canal, and sending
operatives to Gaza to help militant groups there.
The statement said some of the men had monitored shipping in the canal
and tourist movements and had assisted Hezbollah operatives in making bombs.
Some had gone abroad to train in Hezbollah camps, it added.
Hezbollah has said Sami Chehab is a member of the group who had been
providing military supplies to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip with the help of
up to 10 others but denied targeting Egypt.
A Hezbollah spokesman, contacted by The Associated Press, declined to
comment Sunday and a Lebanese judicial official said that Lebanese authorities
have not yet received any formal Egyptian request for Qublan's arrest or
extradition.
Egypt's relations with Hezbollah have been strained since the group last
year called Egypt a "partner in crime" with Israel against Palestinians in
Gaza. Egypt said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was trying to create chaos
in the region to serve the interests of others, an apparent reference to Iran.
Rights groups say Egypt has used "exceptional" courts like emergency and
military courts to secure guilty verdicts and point to swift and often harsh
sentences passed by the courts against Islamist militants in the 1990s.
A lawyer representing some of the men told Reuters the referral to an
exceptional court had been expected.
"It's a very long line of accusations, and I imagine they will all be
rebutted before the court, but of course the big problem is that they are being
referred to an exceptional court... which denies the accused the most basic
legal protections," said Abdel Moniem Abdel Maqsoud.
The prosecution said the men included five Palestinians and two Lebanese,
as well as Egyptians and Sudanese, and that one senior Hezbollah official and
three Egyptians remain at large.
A date for the trial has not yet been set.
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