CAIRO, 21 August 2007 — Four men were jailed for 25 years by an Egyptian court yesterday in connection with three attacks that killed three foreign tourists in Cairo two years ago. The tourists were killed in a bomb attack at a famous bazaar in Islamic Cairo’s district of Al-Azhar in April 2005.
A suicide bomber attacked tourists later in the same month while his sister and girlfriend opened fire at a tourist bus. The four attackers were killed in the attacks, while 26 people, including 11 tourists, were wounded.
The State Security Supreme Court also handed down jail terms of between one and 10 years to five other defendants. Four others, including two women, were acquitted. The attacks were the first in the Nile Valley since 1997. A series of bombings, however, have targeted tourist resorts in the Sinai Peninsula between 2004 and 2006. Egypt has blamed the Sinai attacks on a group of Bedouin with militant views called Al-Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Jihad).
The 14 accused risked the death penalty for the April 7, 2005, attack in Al-Azhar bazaar district. Police swiftly removed those who had been sentenced from their cage in the packed courtroom as they shouted their dismay at the verdict, while those ordered freed shouted “God is the Greatest.”
The courtroom was overflowing with relatives of the accused who broke down in tears as the sentences were handed down. No relatives or representatives of those killed in the blast were present.
The defendants had been charged with belonging to an illegal group, using force and violence to disturb public order and threaten the security of the state, and possession of weapons intended for use in terrorist operations.
The attack was the first on foreigners in the capital in seven years and was seen as targeting the Egyptian economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism and had been severely hit by previous attacks.
Egypt has also been hit by a string of bombings in recent years targeting tourists in popular resorts on the Red Sea coast of the Sinai Peninsula. On April 30, a man wanted in connection with the first bombing exploded a device while being chased by police in downtown Cairo, killing himself and wounding seven people — four foreigners and three Egyptians.
Less than an hour later, two women wearing full-length black hijabs died while carrying out an abortive shooting attack on a tourist bus near the Citadel, another popular tourist attraction. It emerged that the two women were the sister and fiancee of the dead suspect.
After police opened fire, the sister shot dead his fiancee before turning the gun on herself.
The suspected mastermind of the attacks, Ashraf Said Yusef, had been captured the day before after throwing himself out of an apartment window in a bid to escape police. He died in police custody days later from what police said were self-inflicted injuries.
The Interior Ministry said that he had “embraced the idea of jihad” or holy war and that more attacks had been planned. Two previously unknown said they carried out the attacks, but neither claim could be independently verified.
Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces found 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of TNT explosives Sunday hidden in sacks near the country’s border with the Gaza Strip, a police officer said. Police discovered the cache covered with bushes in northern Sinai after receiving a tip from local Bedouins, reported the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Bedouins working for the authorities led them to the location of the explosives near El-Toayel village, some 25 kilometers west of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, the official said. Smuggling across the border into Gaza or Israel has long provided a livelihood for some Bedouin. Weapons, cigarettes and foreigners seeking jobs in Israel are all taken surreptitiously across the border.
Israel has repeatedly accused Egypt of not doing enough to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza, particularly through tunnels.
