Egyptian security services arrested a Salafist group affiliated to Jihad organizations and led by Arabs living in Cairo. This is the second operation of its kind in a month, after the announcement earlier in December that members of the Ahbash group were arrested.
According to the information published exclusively by al-Masry al-Youm, the group includes 15 people arrested on November 23 and led by Abdel Fattah Seoudi and his brother Ashraf from Jordan. The accused were referred to the Supreme State Security Prosecution last week.
According to State Security investigations, the accused were involved in plans to monitor foreign soldiers and multinational forces in Sinai as well as foreign warships in the Suez Canal and foreign facilities in preparation for an attack.
They were also accused of monitoring some police stations to blow them up later on. The 15 people denied the accusations and labeled them as fabricated.
According to the investigations, the two leaders had mobilized a number of Egyptians to carry out hostile activities against foreign interests in Egypt and have relations with some extremists in Iraq. Abdel Fattah Seoudi has the pseudonym of Abou Mosaab.
Investigations also reported that the group leaders provided money to buy chemical material to make explosives. They also pointed out that these people consider rulers, the police, the army and those working in judicial institutions as nonbelievers.
Islamic groups' lawyer Montasser al-Zayat told al-Masry al-Youm that the accusations leveled at this group contained ready-made accusations based on no evidence.
