Hizbullah chief Nasrallah
Photo: AFP
Israel-Egypt border. A main target
Photo: Reuters
Report: Hizbullah deceived its activists in Egypt
Sources involved in investigation against members of Shiite group arrested in Egypt tell Arab newspaper terror cell's leaders misled activists into believing they would be working for Fatah's military wing
The leaders of the Hizbullah cell
seized
in Egypt
recruited activists by misleading them into believing that they would be working for the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
– Fatah's
military wing, the London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Monday, quoting sources involved in the Cairo investigation.
According to the sources, the organization members also used a worker at the Palestinian Liberation Organization's embassy in Yemen.
The sources told the paper that the leaders of the Hizbullah organization in Egypt told the activists they were being recruited by the Palestinian group in order to ease their mobilization.
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One of the Palestinian detainees, Adel Salman, told his investigators that he had gone to visit his uncle in Yemen three years ago. According to the man, during the visit his uncle took him to the PLO embassy in Sana, where he was introduced to a person working there.
The worker introduced himself as a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and suggested that Salman join the movement. He instructed him to collect information in the Sinai area, and particularly in the region near the Egypt-Israel border, and send it to him via email.
'Among detainees: 2 Israeli Arabs'
The sources told the newspaper that one person, a resident of al-Arish in Sinai, was tasked with supervising Salman and paying him about $300 a month.
Salman denied in his interrogation that he had received a salary, saying he did not know the information he delivered had reached that destination. He also said he had nothing to do with the Hizbullah organization.
According to the same sources, Salman admitted that before he was arrested the man supervising him asked him to disappear from the area due to imminent danger on the part of Egypt's security services, but that he did not manage to escape and was arrested.
The newspaper also reported that among the detainees were five members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement and two Israeli Arabs living in the country.
According to the report, some of the detainees collapsed and wept at the investigation room after learning that they were suspected of belonging to the Hizbullah organization and planning to carry out terror attacks in Egypt. In their interrogations they denied being part of the organization.
