Archive for State Security Investigation Services

Court acquits police officer in Sayed Bilal murder

by admin
December 20th, 2012

The Alexandria Criminal Court on Thursday acquitted police officer Mahmoud Abdel Alim of killing Sayed Bilal, a Salafi man who died in police custody in January 2011, reversing an earlier ruling.

In June, the court sentenced in absentia four officers in the now-dissolved State Security Investigation Services to 25 years in prison for torturing Bilal to death, including Alim. Another officer, Major General Abdel Rahman al-Shimy, who was present for the hearing, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Alim requested a retrial, which began on 20 November.

Bilal was arrested following the New Year’s Day attack on the Two Saints Church in Alexandria in 2011, which left at least 23 people dead.  

“The defendant violated the sanctity of the victim's body to force him to confess [bombing] the Two Saints Church,” the prosecutor said during the hearing Thursday, demanding the most severe punishment.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Retrial begins for police officers accused of torture

by admin
November 20th, 2012

The Alexandria Criminal Court held the first session Tuesday in the retrial of five state security officers accused of torturing Sayed Bilal to death in January 2011.

The court postponed the case to 20 December after hearing the prosecutor’s argument.

West Alexandria Prosecutions head Mohamed Taha accused the defendants of premeditated murder. He said that they beat Bilal, a 31-year-old Salafi, to death on 5 January 2011 during interrogations over the New Year’s Eve Two Saint’s Church bombing, in which 23 Coptic Christians were killed.

The crime is especially serious, Taha argued, because security officers are sworn to protect the lives of citizens.

In June, the court convicted five policemen from the now-dissolved State Security Investigation Services of killing Bilal. The court sentenced four officers, who were tried in absentia, to 25 years in prison and a fifth who was present for the sentencing, Major General Abdel Rahman al-Shimy, to 15.

Police arrested Bilal at his home at dawn on 5 January 2011, allegedly subjected him to torture, and then brought his body home to his family a day later.

The forensic report said he died from his injuries, specifically a head injury that led to a brain bleed.

Edited translation from MENA

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Current, former ministers summoned to testify on security documents destruction

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November 11th, 2012

The South Cairo Criminal Court postponed the trial of Major General Hassan Abdel Rahman, former head of the State Security Investigation Services, his deputy Major General Tareq Abu Gheida, and other high-ranking security officials to 11 December.

The suspects are accused of burning and giving the orders to burn official documents during the 2011 revolution.

The court summoned Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and former Interior Ministers Mansour al-Essawy and Mahmoud Wagdy to testify when the court reconvenes.  

The court reviewed 15 videos of citizens storming SSIS headquarters in Beni Suef Governorate, in which those involved claim that state security officers burned documents and threatened to shoot anyone who came near them while they were destroying documents. Protesters in the video testify that security officers dug a large hole in which to bury the burnt remains of the documents.  

The court has refused to review videos other than those recorded by citizens.

In March 2011, hundreds of civilians broke into the SSIS facilities in Cairo and other governorates following reports that its officers had been disposing of documents believed to provide evidence of its corrupt practices.

Citizens seized a number of documents and handed them over to investigators.

The SSIS, which had been Egypt’s much-feared and most-hated security agency, was one tool used by Mubarak’s regime to suppress political activism. The agency was accused of torturing political detainees.

The agency was disbanded by Essawy in March 2011 and replaced with the National Security Agency.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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April 6 calls for release of Egyptian detained in Saudi Arabia

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September 9th, 2012

The April 6 Youth Movement called Saturday for the immediate release of Nagla Wafa, an Egyptian detained in Saudi Arabia.

According to a statement, the movement will continue to press for the dignity and release of all Egyptians detained abroad.

The movement called on Egyptian authorities to put restoring the dignity of expatriates among its top priorities.

A number of human rights organizations have demanded that Saudi Arabia release Wafa and commute her sentence.

Wafa was sentenced to five years in prison and 500 lashes on charges of embezzling 2 million riyals from a Saudi princess. Her mother, Nashwa al-Saeedy, refused to disclose the name of the princess, but said she is a first degree relative of the king. She added the princess’s lawyer exploited his connections with the now-dissolved State Security Investigation Services.

Wafa has already spent three years in prison and received 300 lashes after being arrested in Saudi Arabia on 30 September 2009.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Zawahiri: Arab revolts by-product of jihadists’ struggle against US

by admin
August 1st, 2012

The brother of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has said that  recent Arab revolts would not have seen successful had not it been for pressure by Salafi jihadists who fought against the USA  and managed to bring war to its soil through the September 11 attacks.

"We are bound by Islamic Sharia, we do not kill without a cause," Mohamed al-Zawahiri told Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr late Tuesday, in his first TV interview. He noted that the attack on New York’s World Trade Center in September 2001 had put the United States under pressure, because it led to the death of the FBI chief and forced the country to recant its support for a number of despotic Arab leaders.

Zawahiri admitted Al-Qaeda’s failure to reach Israel due to Arab rulers. “If we have the chance we will hit it (Israel).” He also denied the presence of any jihadist elements in Sinai.

He revealed that jihadists are continuously reviewing their doctrines, and that one former leader of the dissolved State Security Investigation Services had threatened to kill him if he would not accept security reviews of their ideas.

Egypt's then-ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces released Zawahiri in March 2011 as part of a scheme to free Islamist prisoners detained over political cases. He had been in detention since 1999.

But Zawahiri was rearrested three days after his release as security authorities found he was sentenced to death in absentia in 1998 in the "Albania returnees" case.

The name refers to Islamist hardliners who joined Muslim resistance in the Balkans against the Soviet Union. The flow of jihadist fighters to the region started with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Some of those returned to Egypt, while others moved to other fronts in the Balkans, such as Albania.

Egyptian authorities had charged the returnees with plotting for a coup, murdering civilians, and targeting tourists and Christians.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Zawahiri: Arab revolts by-product of jihadists’ struggle against US

by admin
August 1st, 2012

The brother of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has said that  recent Arab revolts would not have seen successful had not it been for pressure by Salafi jihadists who fought against the USA  and managed to bring war to its soil through the September 11 attacks.

"We are bound by Islamic Sharia, we do not kill without a cause," Mohamed al-Zawahiri told Al Jazeera Mubasher Misr late Tuesday, in his first TV interview. He noted that the attack on New York’s World Trade Center in September 2001 had put the United States under pressure, because it led to the death of the FBI chief and forced the country to recant its support for a number of despotic Arab leaders.

Zawahiri admitted Al-Qaeda’s failure to reach Israel due to Arab rulers. “If we have the chance we will hit it (Israel).” He also denied the presence of any jihadist elements in Sinai.

He revealed that jihadists are continuously reviewing their doctrines, and that one former leader of the dissolved State Security Investigation Services had threatened to kill him if he would not accept security reviews of their ideas.

Egypt's then-ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces released Zawahiri in March 2011 as part of a scheme to free Islamist prisoners detained over political cases. He had been in detention since 1999.

But Zawahiri was rearrested three days after his release as security authorities found he was sentenced to death in absentia in 1998 in the "Albania returnees" case.

The name refers to Islamist hardliners who joined Muslim resistance in the Balkans against the Soviet Union. The flow of jihadist fighters to the region started with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Some of those returned to Egypt, while others moved to other fronts in the Balkans, such as Albania.

Egyptian authorities had charged the returnees with plotting for a coup, murdering civilians, and targeting tourists and Christians.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Man sentenced to one year for insulting Prophet’s companions

by admin
July 31st, 2012

Egyptian authorities sent Mohamed Fahmy to Wadi al-Natrun Prison on Tuesday to serve a one-year sentence for insulting the Prophet’s companions and spreading the Shia doctrine.

A court of appeal issued the verdict against Fahmy Thursday after he appealed the first ruling, which sentenced him to three years and fined him LE100,000.

His lawyer, Youssef Qandil, threatened to escalate the issue internationally and submit a complaint to the United Nations, describing the verdict as “personal” and “fabricated.”

The residents of Fahmy's village in Kafr al-Zayat said the Muslim Brotherhood group tried to talk him out of his doctrine by arranging meetings for him with Al-Azhar University professors that usually ended in fights, which prompted the group to warn the young villagers of following his thoughts.

The story began a year ago, when local residents kicked Fahmy out of the mosque and filed a complaint against him with the police, accusing him of inciting sectarian strife.

Anti-Shia rhetoric is prevalent in Egypt, especially among Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi movement.

Shia community leaders complained of persecution under former President Hosni Mubarak. Al-Taher al-Hashiemy, the secretary general of the Hashemeya Sufi order and one of the founders of the Sufi-led Egyptian Tahrir Party, once said that Shias abstained from performing their rituals to avoid detention by the now-dissolved State Security Investigation Services.

In December, security forces shut down Cairo's Hussein Mosque, apparently fearing that non-Shia citizens would react angrily to Egyptian Shias celebrating Ashura, an annual event that marks the death of the Prophet's grandson Imam Hussein.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
 

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Police identify alleged Shia preacher in Boulaq al-Dakrour

by admin
July 29th, 2012

Security services in Cairo's Bulaq al-Dakrour neighborhood have allegedly identified one of five Shia preachers after the police had received several complaints about the preachers, accompanied with copies of their interviews on the Internet, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported Sunday.

Last week, prosecutors in Bulaq al-Dakrour received a number of complaints from Nahya residents. They said that several Shias were frequenting a mosque where they allegedly insulted and mocked the Prophet Mohamed and his companions in an attempt to spread the Shia faith.

The claimants said the defendants used the Internet to communicate their ideas with residents, and that they tried to arrest them but failed.

Anti-Shia rhetoric is prevalent in Egypt, especially among Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi movement.

Shia community leaders complained of persecution under former President Hosni Mubarak. Al-Taher al-Hashiemy, the secretary general of the Hashemeya Sufi order and one of the founders of the Sufi-led Egyptian Tahrir Party, once said that Shias abstained from performing their rituals to avoid detention by the now-dissolved State Security Investigation Services.

In December, security forces shut down Cairo's Hussein Mosque, apparently fearing that non-Shia citizens would react angrily to Egyptian Shias celebrating Ashura, an annual event that marks the death of the Prophet's grandson Imam Hussein.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Locals in Cairo neighborhood accuse four people of proselytizing Shia

by admin
July 28th, 2012

Bulaq al-Dakrour prosecution has started investigating about 40 claims filed against four people for proselytizing the Shia faith in Nahya, Giza.

Prosecutor Ibrahim Khalaf summoned the suspects on Saturday, after listening to the claimants, and ordered that their statements be investigated.
 
Anti-Shia rhetoric is prevalent in Sunni-majority Egypt, especially among Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafi movement, which are predominately Sunni.  
 
The prosecution received a number of complaints over the past two days from Nahya residents that several Shias were frequenting a mosque where they insulted and mocked the Prophet Mohamed and his companions in an attempt to spread the Shia faith.
 
The claimants said they discovered that the four defendants used the Internet to communicate their ideas with some of the residents and that they tried to arrest them but they could not.
 
The claimants confirmed that the defendants stirred up anger among the residents that almost became violent, so they submitted reports to the prosecution.
 
Shia community leaders complained of persecution and detention under the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak. Al-Taher al-Hashiemy, the secretary general of the Hashemeya Sufi order and one of the founders of the Sufi-led Egyptian Tahrir Party, once said that Shias abstained from performing their rituals to avoid detention by the now dissolved State Security Investigation Services.
 
The media has reported that that Egyptian security services have stopped several Shia rituals and celebrations. In December, security forces shut Cairo's Hussein Mosque, apparently fearing that non-Shia citizens would react angrily to some Egyptian Shias celebrating Ashura, an annual event that marks the death of the Prophet's grandson Imam Hussein.
 
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
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Some state security documents escaped destruction, officials say

by admin
July 26th, 2012

Several high ranking state security officials did not follow former security chief Hassan Abdel Rahman order's to destroy sensitive documents during the 25 January revolution, according to new documents recently acquired by Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Forty-five officials, including Abdel Rahman, are currently awaiting trial on these charges.

According to the documents, officers said they feared that destroying the documents was a crime that would be punishable by law. Some officials hid the files in Port Said port, while others built cement walls at the doors of rooms where the files are kept.

Essam Fouad, the former head of state security in Alexandria, said that he had received a letter from Abdel Rahman demanding that all files marked “top secret” be destroyed. Fouad instead ordered soldiers to build cement walls blocking the rooms where these files were kept.

In March 2011, following the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak, hundreds of civilians stormed the State Security Investigation Services (SSIS) facilities in Cairo and other governorates following reports that its officers had been disposing of documents believed to provide evidence of its corrupt practices.

Some citizens had seized a number of documents and handed them over to investigators.

The SSIS, which had been Egypt’s much-feared and most-hated security agency, was one tool used by Mubarak’s regime to suppress political activism. The agency was accused of torturing political detainees.

Egypt’s former Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawy disbanded the agency in March 2011.

The investigating judge decided to try 45 officials at the now defunct state security agency in the criminal court. The trial will begin in September.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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