CAIRO: Lawyer for many of the detainees currently in custody for belonging to a Hezbollah cell, Montasser Al-Zayat announced that the anger of President Hosni Mubarak regarding this case has him worried.
Speaking to Daily News Egypt from Doha, Qatar, Al-Zayat said that he was worried that investigators working on the case might feel pressured by the presidential statement to take more adverse actions.
The case is yet to be referred to court although investigations have presumably ended.
Al-Zayat pointed out the speech that Mubarak had given to commemorate Labor Day, in which he unequivocally sounded his objections to the presence of the Hezbollah cell operating on Egyptian soil.
The statement, Al-Zayat said, “might veer the case to a military tribunal, and it might also formulate pressure on the nature of the investigations. The lack of an announcement as to when the trial will take place is what is worrying.
Al-Zayat also admitted that the cell was operating on Egyptian territory under orders from Hezbollah, but stated that all operations were geared towards aiding Gaza, and other accusations of planning operations in Egypt were patently untrue.
“The truth of the matter is that they were here to help the Palestinian cause, anything besides that is untrue. We will do our duty and see what happens, he said.
The case has led to a war of words between the Egyptian government and Hezbollah, with each side attacking the other since the detention of the operatives was announced.
Forty-nine people, 22 of which are in custody, are being charged with operating a cell in Egypt which was taking orders from Hezbollah.
A lawyer representing some of the other detainees, Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud, previously told the press, “The current political tension and the media attacks of the state press have cast its shadow over the case.
Investigations in the case have been concluded and the case is with the Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud who will decide which court to refer it to.
Torture allegations have surfaced regarding the detainees who have spent over four months in the custody of State Security. One detainee, Adel Ghareez, has made allegations of torture and the State Security Prosecutor Hisham Badawy has ordered that all the detainees be examined by a forensic team to ascertain if they had been tortured.
