6 MB members jailed for alleged plan to bomb electricity towers

Public Prosecutor Hesham Barakat ordered the detention of six members of the ousted Muslim Brotherhood group for 15 days pending further investigations, due to their alleged involvement in a plot to bomb electricity towers, the official Middle East News Agency reported on Monday.

According to State Security Prosecution, the defendants possessed detailed maps of electricity towers in five governorates, as well as explosive materials, allegedly aiming at putting the country in a “state of complete darkness.”

The defendants, who belong to the ousted Islamist organization, reportedly confessed about their role in the plot, with one of them adding that they were aiming to increase public outrage regarding ongoing power outages, in order to “embarrass” state officials and expose their failures.

There have been other reports of the bombing of various electricity towers and exchanges across the country, but critics have deemed them an attempt by the state to avert its responsibility towards a worsening energy problem in Egypt, and blame the Brotherhood for the crisis.

Many areas of the country have been experiencing daily power cuts during the summer months, with some reporting outages as many as four or five times a day, for an hour or more each time.