304 Egyptians referred to military prosecution in Hassm case

The State Security Prosecution referred 304 Egyptians to the military prosecution on Wednesday,  charged with belonging to Islamist militant group Hassm, according to Egypt’s state-owned news agency MENA.

The 304 are charged with carrying out 14 “major terrorist operations,” including attacks on public figures, members of the judiciary and police targets according to the privately owned Youm7 newspaper.

One of the accused, Muslim Brotherhood member Mohamed Ali Beshr who was jailed in 2014 on a separate espionage charge, is charged in this case with planning Hassm operations from inside prison according to Youm7. The newspaper added that the State Security Prosecution’s investigations said the militant group received support from Brotherhood members abroad, and from Qatari and Turkish intelligence for their operations, with training carried out in Sudan.

144 of the accused are in state custody while the rest will be tried in absentia, with the 74 of in custody already having confessed to their crimes.

Hassm emerged in the summer of 2016, with its first armed operation resulting in the death of Mahmoud Abdel Hameed, head of investigations of the Tamya district of Fayoum.The group has also claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of former Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa outside his home in the Cairo suburb of 6th of October City. In early September, the group published photos of what it claims were explosives planted by the Police Club in the Nile Delta governorate of Damietta.

Hassm has also claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of Deputy Prosecutor General Zakaria Abdel Aziz in New Cairo in August, along with an attempt on the life of judge Ahmed Aboul Fotouh outside his home in the Nasr City district of Cairo in November.

Armed extremist religious groups have been stepping up their attacks, which were previously limited to the Sinai Peninsula, in mainland Egypt in recent years.

Since the military-led ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, militant Islamist groups have carried out scores of bombings and armed attacks, primarily in northern Sinai, which have claimed the lives of hundreds of troops from both the military and police forces.

Military trials for civilians, sanctioned by the constitution, have increased during Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s term, as recent legislation has expanded the conditions allowing for military incarceration.

According to an April report from Human Rights Watch, Egypt has tried at least 7,420 civilians in military courts since the adoption of an October 2014 law that greatly expanded the reach of the military justice system by placing all public property under its jurisdiction. The list of those swept up by the law includes at least 86 children, as well as activists, students and professors.