 Three Egyptians, one of them still a fugitive, went on trial on Saturday charged with involvement in bombings in October at Egyptian Red Sea tourist resorts which killed 34 people. Mohamed Sabah and Mohamed Abdullah Rabaa both pleaded not guilty to charges that they were involved in the attacks in the Sinai Peninsula resorts which were popular with Israelis. Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Fulayfel, the third suspect, was being tried in absentia in the emergency state security court in Ismailia, 115 km (70 miles) northeast of Cairo.
| I still haven't figured out for sure if this was an al-Qaeda operation or if they were free-lancers. I suspect they're wannabes... |
Sabah and Rabaa were arrested two months after the attacks on the Taba Hilton hotel on Egypt's border with Israel and on two beach resorts further south popular with foreign backpackers. Israeli officials say 12 Israelis were among the dead. Prosecutor Ashraf al-Esmawy said the charges included pre-meditated murder, resisting the authorities with force and destroying private and public property and vehicles.
| "Bailiff! Get my book! I'm gonna throw it at 'em!" |
Sabah and Rabaa told the court that they had been subjected to torture during their detention.
| My heart bleeds for them. |
A government-financed rights body said in May that torture was commonplace in Egyptian detention facilities and listed at least nine deaths. The Egyptian authorities says any cases of torture are isolated and that it prosecutes torturers.
"Oh, yeah? When was the last one?"
"1242 A.D." |
Judge Ahmed Mohamed al-Khashab ordered an official medical examination to see if the two suspects had been tortured. He said the next hearing would take place on July 24. Defense lawyer Ahmed Seif al-Islam, who said he had met the defendants for the first time on Saturday, had requested an adjournment to study the case files. Egypt's official MENA news agency said the bomb suspects made detonators, including one using a mobile phone, and obtained explosives from old anti-tank mines found in the desert in Sinai which had been left over from wars in the area.
| That's why I think they're free lancers. I also think they were tortured, but don't really care. |
|