CAIRO: The Supreme State Security Emergency Court on Wednesday found guilty 26 defendants accused of belonging to a Hezbollah cell in Egypt. The 22 defendants in custody were handed down sentences ranging from six months to 15 years. Out of the four being tried in absentia, three received life sentences, including Hezbollah commander Mohamed Qublan, and the alleged ringleader in Egypt, Mohamed Yousef Mansour, known as Sami Shihab. The defendants were charged by the state security prosecution of colluding with an organization not based in Egypt to carry out terrorist activities within its borders. Due to the nature of the state security courts, there is no possibility of appeal. Defense lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud told Daily News Egypt that "this was a political case and a politically-influenced verdict. The defendants should have been tried in a normal court, not an extraordinary one." "There is no process in which they can defend themselves," he added, "the biggest winner here is Israel. We cannot chase Israeli war criminals but this case was an indictment of Hezbollah, who although they had made a mistake are still part of the resistance." Additional accusations include the training of Palestinians within Egypt for operations to be carried out in the Gaza Strip. The defendants' defense team admitted that the cell was aiming to aid Hamas in Gaza, but denied that there were any plans to carry out attacks within Egypt. The trial began in August 2009. The cell was allegedly operating under Shihab's command aided by two Palestinians and a Sudanese national. There have been allegations that the defendants had been tortured while in state security custody during the initial investigation process. This was later denied by a state security report. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had admitted that the cell had been formed under orders to aid Hamas in Gaza during the Israeli offensive against it. He too had denied that there were any plans to carry out operations in Egypt. The case had spurred a war of words between Egypt and Hezbollah, and Egypt also accused Iran of being behind the operation. State Security Prosecutor Hisham Badawi had accused Qublan and Shihab of entering Egypt with falsified passports in order to form an organization to smuggle weapons into Israel as well as target Israeli ships passing through the Suez Canal. He cited that they rented houses near the canal to monitor the movement of ships. Badawi accused the Egyptian defendants of conspiring with a foreign entity to commit terrorist acts on Egyptian soil, including against tourists and tourism sites. They are also accused of digging an underground tunnel in the town of Rafah on the border leading into the Gaza Strip and to smuggle people and goods.
