With links being made between the bombings in Taba and Sharm El-Sheikh, all eyes are on the trial of three suspects in last year's blasts. Mustafa El-Menshawy reports from Ismailia The atmosphere was tense at the Ismailia State Security Court on Sunday when the trial of three suspects accused of taking part in last October's terror attacks in Taba, which killed 34 people, resumed. Only two of the suspects -- Mohamed Gayez and Mohamed Rabaa -- were in attendance. The third man, Mohamed Fleifel, is being tried in absentia. Of the other four alleged perpetrators, two were killed in the blasts, and two others died in later clashes with the police. The trial became a major focal point after Interior Minister Habib El-Adli linked the Taba blasts to the tragic events that took place in Sharm El-Sheikh earlier this week. The connection was especially troubling for Gayez, Rabaa, and Fleifel's defense team. Said Fathi, one of 10 lawyers who have volunteered to defend the trio, told the judge that the government was looking for scapegoats in both cases. "We condemn El-Adli's allegations," he said, "which came just a few hours after the blasts amid a flurry of theories regarding who might be behind them". Not only were his three clients innocent, Fathi argued, but the two incidents were completely unrelated in the first place. "The Taba attacks targeted Israeli tourists, while the explosions in Sharm El-Sheikh mainly targeted Egyptians and people of other nationalities," he said. Fathi said Rabaa, 41, and Gayez, 25, were detained even before arrest warrants were issued for them in October last year. He also claimed that the two men were tortured until they confessed. Indeed, both suspects retracted their confessions at an earlier, 2 July hearing, claiming they had been tortured. Standing in the defendant's cage in Ismailia, Rabaa told Al-Ahram Weekly that he and Gayez "have nothing to do with the attacks, and don't even know the third suspect". Gayez then condemned the Sharm El-Sheikh blasts, calling them the work of Israeli and international intelligence bodies. Responding to a defense request, the judge, Mohamed El-Khashab, ordered that the two suspects be examined for evidence of torture. He also agreed with the defense on 28 individuals, including state security officers and police officials, who would have to testify in the case. The trial was then postponed until 14 August. The case is being followed closely by human rights groups, who expressed concerns about the possibility of the suspects getting a fair trial at a state security court whose sentences cannot be appealed. "It is an issue of concern that the suspects are standing trial before a state security court set up under the emergency law," said Khaled Omar, a lawyer commissioned by Human Rights Watch (HRW) to attend the trial. A report released by the New York-based group in November last year alleged that police in North Sinai detained some 33,500 people after the Taba blasts; the report also claims many of these detainees were tortured. A local human rights group -- the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, whose head Ahmed Seif El-Islam is part of the defense team -- jointly issued the report with HRW. A contingent of Sinai residents and activists attending Sunday's session expressed their concern about the government launching a similarly large campaign of mass detentions in Sinai in the wake of the attacks on Sharm El-Sheikh. Echoing the claims made by the two suspects, activist Ashraf Ayyoub blamed foreign intelligence bodies for the incidents, saying "the Sharm explosions have proven the innocence of the Taba suspects since the two attacks show a much bigger enemy is in play." Ayyoub told the Weekly that Sinai residents were "scared because the memories of mass detentions in the wake of the Taba blasts were still fresh in their minds." He said 100 people, including female relatives of Taba suspects who are still at large, have already been detained. He also claimed that police were still holding 200 of those arrested without charges after the Taba attacks, despite significant pressure from human rights groups, and numerous public appeals, for their release. According to Ayyoub, the judge's acquiescence with all of the defense team's demands was based on a belief that the suspects are innocent, and should not be made into scapegoats.
