Espionage to Foreign Country Added to Sami Shehab
Egypt has added "espionage to a foreign country" to the charges against Hizbullah agent Sami Shehab and 49 other Hizbullah members arrested in Cairo, a manner tantamount to a life sentence.
The suspects face several other charges, including helping a foreign military force carry out attacks in Egypt, weapons possession and forgery, in addition to plotting to destabilize the country.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has rejected the accusations, but confirmed over the weekend that he had sent Shehab to Egypt — a rare acknowledgment that Hizbullah was operating in another Arab country.
Egyptian security forces were on Monday searching a mountainous region of the Sinai Peninsula for 13 men believed to be members of a Hizbullah cell.
Security officials in Egypt said the men”s names came up during interrogation of the 49 suspects who have been arrested over the past five months.
They said among the wanted men were 10 Lebanese and 3 Palestinians whose names came up in questioning.
Interrogation with Shehab continued in the presence of his lawyer Muntaser al-Zayyat, pan-Arab daily Al Hayat said Tuesday.
Zayyat told the paper that a confrontation between Shehab and Nasser Abu Amra, a Palestinian, and two other Egyptian suspects – Ihab al-Sayyed and Abdel Latif al-Manakhili – took place at the prosecutor”s office.
He said Shehab admitted to knowing Abu Amra and the two Egyptians, saying trade relations have developed between regarding support of Gazans and smuggling explosives to the Gaza Strip via smuggling tunnels.
Zayyat said the three detainees denied accusations raised against them, insisting there was no relationship between them and Shehab. But Shehab held on to the statements he made.