CAIRO: The State Security Prosecution wrapped up its investigation Saturday of the bombing in Al-Hussein last February, which resulted in the death of a French teenager. The investigation report was forwarded to Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, who will announce the conclusions and outline what happens next. This is a similar process followed in the Hezbollah cell case, in which 26 defendants are accused of operating a Hezbollah-led cell on Egyptian soil. Here too investigations were carried out by the State Security Prosecution led by Hisham Badawi before Mahmoud refers the case to (a State Security) court. The Hezbollah trial began late last month. A locally made explosion exploded under a bench near Al-Hussein mosque Feb. 22 injuring 23 and killing a 17-year-old French student. Another canister was exploded in a controlled demolition by authorities. In the Al-Hussein bombing case, the MENA news agency reported that 12 suspects were currently detained on suspicion of carrying out the attacks, although the Ministry of Interior had announced in May that they had arrested seven suspects in connection to the bombing. The initial seven suspects taken into custody included two Egyptians, two Palestinians and a British man of Egyptian descent, a Belgian of Tunisian descent and a French woman of Algerian descent. The Interior Ministry claimed that the suspects were arrested while in possession of weapons and ammunition and were planning further attacks in Egypt. Targets were reported to have been tourist sites and oil installations in Sinai. The two Egyptians were identified as Ahmed Mohammed Siddiq and Khaled Mahmoud Mustapha. The Ministry of Interior alleged that they had entered the Gaza Strip through tunnels to receive training in the use of explosives. The two Palestinians were purportedly linked to a group called the Islamic Palestinian Army. It is this group that kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit with Hamas and were also behind the kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston in Gaza last year. According to the Interior Ministry statement, the Belgian suspect had said that he was instructed to travel to Belgium to contact Al-Qaeda operatives to coordinate an attack in France.
