CAIRO: Nine people have been arrested in Ismailia for their implication in 29 “terrorist attacks,” and guns, ammunition and explosive devices were seized in their “dens,” according to a Monday police statement.
“I was assigned with new work; to be responsible for specialized groups in the governorate,” said stuttering Abdullah Shehata, 26, in a video released by the Interior Ministry on the mission carried out information from Homeland Security.
“The target of these groups was to plant stun and hoax bombs,” added Shehata, who seemed to have his hands cuffed behind his back.
Some of the attacks perpetrated by the defendants, according to the statement, are torching a post office, a notary office, five vehicles outside Ismailia Cooperative Association, three cars owned by an officer, a journalist and a Christian citizen, and planting explosive devices outside a bank, a supermarket and two schools.
Not looking at the camera throughout his “confessions,” Mohamed Ahmed, 20, seems to admit to having participated in the torching of a train and buses.
Interior Ministry’s video with English subtitles
Defendants “confessing” in police, military videos
The police have released several videos of alleged Muslim Brotherhood members allegedly confessing to terrorist operations in the past two years.
The most high-profile video of that nature, however, released by the Ministry of Defense. It was related to the case of Sohaib Saad and Omar Mohamed, who went missing June 1 and then appeared in a July 10 video as “terrorists.”
In the video, Saad said he participated in the theft of a state-owned broadcasting car at the 2013 Rabaa al-Adaweya sit-in, receiving money from a Muslim Brotherhood leader to buy a gun, distributing flares among protesting students, filming the dispersal of the sit-in and other subsequent protests.
Saad and the other defendants mentioned in the video are standing trial in a military court.
In another video released by the police, lawyer Karim Hamdy appeared with shifting eyes admitting to possessing firearms and giving instructions to someone to “protect” Friday pro-Brotherhood protests. Hamdy was pronounced dead Feb. 24 with a forensic report recording torture.
The video was only released after Hamdy’s death. Two Homeland Security officers are standing trial in the case’ their next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 15.