Egypt prosecutor calls for death penalty in Hezbollah trial
Prosecutor in trial of Shiite group members charged with planning attacks says they 'hid behind pro-resistance slogans to carry out their crimes'
The prosecution in a trial of 26 alleged Hezbollah members charged with planning attacks in Egypt demanded the death sentence on Tuesday, a judicial source said.
The prosecutor made the request during a hearing at the emergency state security court trying the high-profile case, which has damaged relations between Egypt and the powerful Lebanese Shiite militant group.
He called for "the harshest sentence against the defendants," the judicial source said. The trial will resume on February 20.
The men are accused of plotting attacks against ships in the Suez Canal and tourist sites, and of spying, along with other charges.
'Stab in the heart'
Most of the group, which includes five Palestinian suspects and one Sudanese, were rounded up between late 2008 and January 2009.
Four of the defendants, among them the alleged Lebanese ringleader Mohammed Qublan, are being tried in absentia after they fled the country.
The prosecutor referred to the defendants as "traitors who wanted to rattle Egypt's security and stability, harm its economy and stab it in the heart.
"We would not have been able to thwart their aggressive plans without God's help," he said, adding that the defendants "hid behind slogans in support of the Palestinian resistance to carry out their crimes."
Hezbollah has acknowledged that one of the terror cell's members, Sami Shihab, is in fact a member of the Lebanese group, but insisted that he had arrived in Egypt in order to transfer arms to Hamas in Gaza and that the cell had not planned on carrying out attacks on Egyptian soil.
The affair has brought to the surface the increasing tensions between moderate Sunni countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and elements in the Middle East that are under the influence of Shiite Iran and its satellites.
