Egypt: Trial of the "cell of Hezbollah" to open Sunday

CAIRO - The trial of 26 men accused of planning attacks in Egypt on behalf of the Lebanese Hezbollah opens Sunday at the state security court, according to judicial sources.

•     The suspects: two Lebanese, five Palestinians and 19 Egyptians, have been charged with masterminding murders, planned attacks against tourist sites and ships using the Suez Canal, spying for a terrorist organization and weapons possession .
  
      Four of the accused are at large, including the brain of the group, the Lebanese Qoublan Mohammed.
  
      The defence lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud declared that some of the defendants had admitted planning attacks against Israeli targets.
  
      "Those whose names appear on the list, including the suspect number two, Mohammed Youssef Mansour Lebanese identified as Sami Chihab, said during questioning that they had initially planned attacks against Israeli tourists in Sinai in response to the killing of Imad Moughnieh, but the leadership of Hezbollah has ordered the prohibition of such acts,"he said.
  
      Moughnieh, the head of the military wing of the Hezbollah movement, was assassinated in February 2008 in Damascus by a car bomb, an attack against the Shiite group to which Israel has denied any involvement.
  
      The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, had admitted in April that Mohammed Mansour Youssef was an agent of Hezbollah who was on mission to introduce weapons into Ghaza.
  
      The defendants have said that their main objective was to assist the Palestinians in Ghaza, said the lawyer.
  
      The suspects tried by the State Security courts, established by law on the state of emergency proclaimed in 1981, can not appeal.
  
      The arrests of suspects in April had tense relations between Egypt, predominantly Sunni, and Iran, support of Shiite Hezbollah, Cairo accusing Tehran of using Hezbollah to gain a foothold in Egypt.
  
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.