The Supreme State Security Prosecution began an investigation on Friday into accusations that members of the Muslim Brotherhood have provided aid to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and met with top Hamas leaders over the past two months. A report by State Security Investigations revealed that State Security forces arrested four men, including one Palestinian, in Rafah after they attempted to enter Egypt through tunnels that pass under the border and into Gaza. Rafah straddles the Egypt-Gaza border. The report, labeled Supreme State Security Report 404/2010, claims that some elements of the Muslim Brotherhood formed an organizational center dedicated to promoting armed struggle against Israel and conducting military training in conjunction with the Hamas leadership in Gaza. The report accuses the detained of cooperating with Hamas to manufacture devices for remote detonations and assisting the armed Islamic group in its attempts to monitor Israeli planes and Israel's armed forces. It says that the accused individuals sneaked into Gaza, met with Hamas leadership to review developments in Gaza and participated in military training. The report also claims that the accused men collected donations in Egypt in the name of supporting the Palestinian people and then presented the donations to Hamas after setting aside a portion of the monies to fund their own activities. The investigation report alleges that the accused received money from Hamas to purchase wireless electronic equipment upon their return to Egypt, with the goal of smuggling the equipment into the Gaza Strip via the cross-border tunnels. The plan was foiled when the accused were arrested by State Security as they returned to Egypt, according to the report. State Security arrested the four men in April. The accused were transferred to the prosecution three days ago after the security services completed their investigation. A number of other members and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood are still State Security's custody and will likely be indicted under similar charges. Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud, a Brotherhood lawyer who is defending the accused, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he was surprised by the news of his clients' arrest and the unprecedented charges against them. “These accusations are repugnant and my clients have rejected them, and the case is most likely politically motivated, designed to sever blockaded Gaza's lifelines while attempting to draw connections between the Brotherhood and Hamas,” Abdel Maqsoud said. The prosecution detained the accused for an additional 15 days pending the completion of its investigations, as allowed for by the Emergency Law. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
