An emergency court heard testimony from three witnesses in the case of two Egyptians on trial for their alleged involvement in last year's bombings at Sinai peninsula resorts that killed 34 people. Capt. Ahmed Heikal told the Supreme Emergency State Security Court in Ismailiya on Sunday that state security officials had received information from secret sources that the two defendants, Mohammed Gayez Sabbah and Mohammed Abdullah Rabaa, helped prepare the explosives used in the bombings and plan the attacks. Heikal said devices used for preparing explosives, including a washing machine timer, were found with the defendants when they were arrested. | Washing machine timer? Perchance were there any freelance film makers in the area doing a documentary? |
Defense lawyer Sayed Fathi claimed the investigations and arrest reports were fabricated and said Gamaan's testimony was coached. Fathi argued that Sunday's hearing proved the case against the defendants "is fabricated and shows the deteriorating level Egyptian security policies have reached." The defendants, who have pleaded innocent, are the first to stand trial in the Oct. 7 car bombings in and around the Red Sea resort town of Taba on the Israeli-Egyptian border, a spot popular with Israeli vacationers. At least 11 Israelis were among the dead and 100 were injured. A wing of the Taba Hilton Hotel was destroyed. A third suspect, Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Flayfil, who was being tried in the case in absentia, was killed in a shootout with police earlier this month.