CAIRO: The trial of the Hezbollah cell case will begin Aug. 23 at the State Security Emergency Criminal Court in the Fifth Settlement on the outskirts of Cairo, though it is attributed to the Abdeen circuit of the court. Lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud said that the Hezbollah cell case had been referred by the State Security Prosecution office to the Abdeen circuit of the Cairo Criminal Court. Abdel-Maqsoud, who is representing some of the detainees in the case, added that the Abdeen circuit court is headed by Judge Adel Abdel-Salam Gomaa, who is known for his harsh sentencing. "His leanings are well known, Abdel-Maqsoud told Daily News Egypt, "he presided over the cases of Ayman Nour, Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Magdi Hussein. He added that there was no reason to refer the case to the district of Abdeen, as the main defendant, Sami Shihab, lives in Dokki and the other detainees are not from Cairo. "They referred it to the Abdeen circuit for him, Abdel-Maqsoud said, "there is nothing in this case that is related to the district of Abdeen. The detainees are accused of plotting terrorist attacks in Egypt at the behest of Hezbollah, as well as targeting vessels passing through the Suez Canal, according to the Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud. The Lebanese Shia group insists that the cell was meant to provide support to Hamas across the border in Gaza and had no plans of carrying out any attacks in Egypt. Al-Shorouk newspaper reported Monday that the Minister of Interior Habib Al-Adly transferred 10 of his commanding officers in the Suez area for their failure to capture the four suspects still at large in the case. The newspaper added that the minister had received information that the four fugitives had escaped Sinai through the Ahmed Helmy tunnel into Suez and they had remained in hiding in the area. They are still at large. Twenty-six people were referred to court, 22 of which are currently detained in Egypt. The main suspect at large is Mohamed Qublan, the Hezbollah intelligence officer whom Egypt accuses of masterminding the cell along with Sami Shihab, who is in custody. After more than seven months in detention, the detainees in custody of the Hezbollah cell case were initially referred to stand trial in a State Security Emergency Court. Abdel-Maqsoud told Daily News Egypt at the time that the decision to hold the trial in a state security emergency court cast doubt on the integrity of the judicial process of the case. "There is no appeals process in the emergency court, the decision to use this court affects the integrity of the trial; they should be tried in a civil court where they will have rights, he said.
