Cairo: A group, accused of killing four Egyptian Christians in Cairo, has forged links with Al Qaida and the Palestinian movement Hamas, according to Egyptian police.
They said that the 25 suspects, including two Palestinians, have set up a terror group aiming to kill Christians and foreigners in Egypt. The defendants will go on trial on February 14, before a state security court, on charges of planning terror attacks.
The group, known as the Brigade of Loyalty and Exoneration, was behind the killing of four Egyptian Christians in a raid on a jewellery shop in the Cairo area of Al Zeitoun more than a year ago, police said.
They added that the prime defendant in the case, identified as Ahmad Al Sharawi, had links with leaders in Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, who had asked him to collect information about Israeli tourists in Sinai.
First to sign
Egypt, which was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has recently been on bad terms with Hamas that rules the neighbouring Gaza Strip.
Al Sharawi, 30, had allegedly embraced militant ideologies by attending sermons in mosques on the outskirts of Cairo before setting up the group in 2004, according to security sources.
The suspected group, meanwhile, had allegedly contacted operatives in Al Qaida to arrange for members from the group to receive training in Afghanistan, the local media quoted the defendants as saying during investigations.
If convicted, the defendants face penalties ranging from life imprisonment to death punishment.
