CAIRO: A Lebanese Hezbollah operative on trial in Egypt for allegedly plotting attacks in the country on Wednesday accused his interrogators of brutal torture that had left him deaf in one ear.
Mohamed Mansour, who is on trial with 25 other defendants, told AFP during a break in a Cairo court session that he and all the others had been brutally tortured.
All the detainees have been tortured. I lost hearing in my right ear because of the constant torture. I was electrocuted and beaten, he said.
The men are accused of plotting attacks against ships in the Suez Canal and tourist sites. Most of the group, including five Palestinian suspects and one Sudanese, were rounded up between late last year and January.
Four of the defendants, among them the alleged Lebanese ringleader Mohamed Qublan, are being tried in absentia by the state security court after they fled the country.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said Mansour is a Hezbollah agent in charge of smuggling weapons to Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip.
One of Mansour s lawyers said Mansour had admitted in questioning that he proposed attacks against Israeli targets in Egypt to avenge the assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander, but was turned down by his superiors.
I am innocent of any charges regarding attacks towards Egypt, said Mansour, who was kept in a black metal cage in the courtroom along with the other defendants.
My task was to send support for our brothers in Gaza. I am in the resistance, like (the late French president Charles) De Gaulle. He s the hero of France, right? said Mansour. -AFP
