The trial of suspects accused of participating in a series of terrorist attacks last year is set to start within days, Jailan Halawi reports A State Security Court is expected to open hearings within days for the trial of 14 suspects, including two women, on charges of conspiring to carry out three terrorist attacks that rocked Cairo last April. Last Thursday Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahid ordered the trial of the suspects after over nine months of investigation. He said the suspects were accused of forming a group which considered Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak an infidel -- thus justifying their disregard for the law -- and which aimed to carry out attacks targeting tourists and security officials. To this effect, Abdel-Wahid noted, suspects manufactured home-made explosives following instructions on Internet websites, helped purchase explosives and weapons, and monitored sites frequented by tourists. In the first attack on 7 April, a bomber killed himself, two French nationals and a United States citizen and wounded 18 others, using a "rudimentary" bomb in Gawhar Al-Qaaid Street near Al-Azhar mosque and Khan Al-Khalili, Cairo's largest bazaar. Using DNA tests, police identified the culprit as 18-year-old engineering student Hassan Raafat Bashandi, who lived in the north Cairo district of Shubra Al-Kheima, and attended the Benha branch of Zaqaziq University. At the time, the incident sent shockwaves through the country since it was the first fatal attack on tourists in the Egyptian capital since 1997, when two gunmen fired automatic rifles at a tour bus parked outside the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, killing 10 people. That same year, militants killed 58 tourists and four Egyptians in an attack at the site of Queen Hatshepsut's Temple in Luxor. A month before Al-Azhar attack, an Egyptian man stabbed and wounded a Hungarian couple near Al-Hussein Mosque. The perpetrator said the tourists were behaving in a manner that showed no respect for the sanctity of Prophet Mohamed's grandson. He also claimed to be acting to avenge Iraqis and Palestinians murdered daily by Americans and Israelis. Another shock came on 30 April, when the capital witnessed new twin attacks on tourists. The first was carried out by a suicide bomber who jumped off the railing of the Sixth October fly-over, landing in Abdel-Moneim Riyad Square in downtown Cairo. The nail-filled bomb he was carrying went off, killing him while injuring an Israeli couple, a Swedish man, an Italian woman and three Egyptians. The culprit was later identified by police as 27- year- old Ihab Youssri Yassin. According to police, he did not intend to take his own life, but, alarmed by a heavy security presence, he ascended a nearby staircase leading onto the bridge. There, he found himself cornered by police, whereupon he panicked and jumped off the fly-over with the explosive device in his hand. It detonated on the spot, decaitated him and injured seven passers-by. The third attack took place less than two hours later when two fully veiled women, identified as Yassin's sister Negat and fiancee Iman Khamis, shot at a tourist bus in Al-Sayyida Aisha district near the Citadel. Their unprecedented attack caused no casualties, other than to the perpetrators themselves, one of whom allegedly shot the other, and then committed suicide. Investigations revealed that still more of the Yassins were involved in the group. Ihab's younger brother Mohamed was found to be an accomplice. He allegedly said during interrogation that he helped his brother Ihab in preparing the explosive device that Bashandi used in the Al-Azhar bombing, and also helped his brother hide out until the execution of the Abdel-Moneim Riyad operation. Investigations also identified Tamer Yassin as the group's financier, who allegedly, transferred money to the other suspects from Qatar to serve the group's purposes. According to statements from the Ministry of Interior, Qatar extradited Tamer Yassin to Egypt on 10 March. However, the official Qatari news agency QNA, quoted an unidentified Qatari Interior Ministry source as denying reports that the Gulf state has handed anyone over to Egypt recently. No further comments have yet been made in this regard. All the suspects are currently being held in jail, except for the two women who were released on bail pending further investigations. They are identified as Siham Mohamed Ali and her daughter, Zeinab Karim Mahmoud. In an interview published on 11 March in the Arabic-language Al-Ahram daily, Ali -- who, along with her daughter, is charged with possessing and hiding weapons as well as obstructing justice and police efforts to combat terrorism -- denied the charges. " I am the victim of those terrorists and have nothing to do with their activities. God knows I am innocent," she said.
