Egypt’s Interior Minister Major-General Abdul Ghafar at a press conference held in Cairo yesterday (AFP)
The Egyptian Interior Minister Major-General Magdy Abdul Ghaffar has accused the Muslim Brotherhood of planning and carrying out the assassination of the former Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat last year. The minister added that “the Brotherhood cell which included 48 members received training from Hamas in Gaza” and pointed out that his ministry has foiled “a huge (Muslim Brotherhood) conspiracy” to destabilise the state.
Major-General Abdul Ghafar said that the security service succeeded in detecting plans and identifying the criminals involved in the “great conspiracy” at a news conference in Cairo yesterday that was broadcast on state television.
The minister of interior announced details of how those accused of Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat’s assassination were arrested hours after the public prosecutions office decided to imprison six people who it said were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood for 15 days pending investigations. The interior minister added that the security service has adopted “modern techniques to penetrate the electronic methods used by the Muslim Brotherhood that have never been used in the history of the Egyptian security services”. He pointed out that this breakthrough enabled the security forces to uncover the “great conspiracy” that targeted the stability of the state and demolition of all its components and return it to its previous problematic state.
After former president Mohamed Morsi who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood was ousted, a court ruling that classified the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation was issued. The Egyptian authorities arrested the group’s leaders including their Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, his deputy Khairat El-Shater and a large number of the Guidance Bureau’s members. On the other hand, a number of other commanders and cadres belonging to the group fled the country. The split within the ranks of the group during the past few months reflects the deep crisis that the organisation is experiencing after one of its opposing wings decided to embrace a violent approach and form various committees to carry out terrorist operations.