Alleged ‘Helwan Brigades’ member arrested

Adham Youssef
3 Min Read

An alleged Helwan Brigades member was arrested Saturday by police forces in Cairo, and was referred to the prosecution for further investigations.

Police said that the accused is involved in the burning of a police facility in Helwan in September 2014, and torching a public bus.

Findings by the investigations revealed that the accused participated in the Helwan Brigades video.

The video, which went viral in August 2014, featured a number of men holding firearms and threatening security forces and “the Interior Ministry in South Cairo” with violence, as they were “fed up with the Muslim Brotherhood’s peacefulness”.

During the video, a man speaking on camera asserted they are not Brotherhood members, but showed solidarity with the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in through a hand-sign.

The man speaking on camera addressed the Interior Ministry, saying: “You are to be targeted for what you have done to us. You have shown no consideration for the fact that we are your brothers. You have shown no consideration for anything. You have shed the bloods and stepped on them. You have raped the women. You have impregnated the Muslim women.”

Several alleged group members were arrested, with 215 of them referred to the Criminal Court, on charges of “plotting against the police and the army, and against official facilities”.

The State Security Prosecution findings argued that imprisoned members of the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group “managed to assign members to form groups including the Helwan Brigades, the Ultras, and the Anti Coup Alliance”.

The defendants in the case are facing many charges including killing conscripts, and blowing up electricity towers.

Although the alleged group members denounced what they called “peacefulness” of the Brotherhood, state institutions continue to argue that the Brotherhood cofounded the country’s main militant groups.

Last month, the ministry issued a statement blaming fleeing Muslim Brotherhood members for recent attacks, after “the arrest of a number of Brotherhood leaders and referring them to court”.

The ministry said the group amended its theoretical framework “to meet the nature of the current period”, to abandon its “peaceful” practices.

This, the ministry added, is being undertaken by the group in cooperation with several Islamist groups including “Ajnad Misr, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, and the Hazemon movement”, having common grounds in their ideology.

Nevertheless the groups, whose majority of members are either arrested or outside the country, denounced the accusations, vowing to stick to their peaceful measures.

Ousted former President Mohamed Morsi, who was affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, received a 20-year prison sentence for inciting violence in what is known as the “Presidential Palace” trial.

 

 

 

 

 

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