By AFP
BEIRUT: The head of a 22-member Hezbollah cell who escaped from an Egyptian prison during the Cairo uprising appeared on Wednesday at a televised rally of the group in Beirut.
Mohammed Youssef Mansour, alias Sami Shehab, was lauded as a “freed prisoner” and a “brother in our struggle” as he joined a group of Hezbollah officials at a gathering to mark the Shia group’s martyrs’ day, television images showed.
Egyptian officials on February 3 announced the 22 had fled along with members of Palestinian group Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and thousands of other convicts during a mass breakout amid anti-government protests in Cairo.
Hezbollah, which has had strained ties with Egypt for decades, has praised Egyptians on their “historic victory” after president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster this month.
The Shia group — which opposes the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel — sparked the ire of ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak in late 2008 by accusing him of complicity with Israel during the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian courts last year sentenced 26 people, four in absentia, for allegedly planning attacks in Egypt on behalf of Hezbollah, a move seen as retaliation for its criticism of Mubarak.
The arrests soured relations between predominantly Sunni Egypt and Shia Hezbollah’s backer Iran, with Cairo accusing Tehran of using the movement to gain a foothold in Egypt.
