Hizbullah Cell Faces Hanging in Egypt, Nasrallah Personally Ordered it to Carry Out Attacks
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has personally tasked the head of the Hizbullah cell in Egypt to carry out attacks in the country, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported Tuesday.
The newspaper said that Nasrallah ordered the leader of the network, Mohammed Qabalan, who is on the run, to prepare for attacks in Egypt, and the man in his turn tasked Lebanese Mohammed Youssef Mansour to plan for such operations.
The two men agreed that they would carry out an attack while Nasrallah was making a speech on the occasion of Ashoura. The green light, according to al-Hayat, would be given when the Hizbullah chief states the words "armed forces" in his address.
However, the arrest of members of the network thwarted the planned operation, the daily said, citing Egyptian investigation.
The probe also revealed that Qabalan and Mansour, who is known as Sami Shehab, were pushed by the Hizbullah leadership to organize the network in Egypt. The men were able to recruit members who were divided into small groups that functioned under their orders, al-Hayat said.
The report came as Egyptian lawyer Muntasar al-Zayyat announced that he planned to stop defending the accused in the Hizbullah cell case in protest against Cairo”s decision to try the 26 men at an emergency state security court.
He told al-Mustaqbal daily that he hoped the case would be referred to the criminal court so that the verdict would be appealed. State security courts were set up under Egypt”s emergency laws and have been in place since 1981 and their verdicts are final.
Legal sources told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that several members of the network could be hanged if convicted by the court. Charges include conspiracy to murder, spying for a foreign organization with the intent of conducting terrorist attacks and weapons possession.