Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud banned on Monday the publication of any findings made during the prosecution's investigations into the New Year's Day suicide bombing that killed at least 21 Christians and wounded dozens outside a church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. In a statement, Mahmoud said the decision was made to guard the confidentiality of the investigations and to preserve the integrity of any evidence found. Mahmoud went on to say that he had sent a memorandum to the Information Minister to take the necessary action needed to instate the ban. The ban applies to all audio-visual media outlets as well as all state, party and weekly newspapers and magazines, whether local or foreign. In related news, the country's interior minister Habib al-Adly announced Sunday that an Al-Qaeda-linked group in Gaza was behind the church bombing. Al-Adly said "conclusive evidence" showed that the Gaza-based Army of Islam was behind the planning and execution of the attack, which sparked three days of Coptic rioting in Cairo and several other cities. It was the deadliest attack against Copts in Egypt in more than a decade. Meanwhile, the militant group denied accusations that it was responsible for the attack. The Islamist movement Hamas on Sunday called on Egyptian authorities to provide evidence of the Army of Islam's alleged involvement. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
