Egyptian bedouins Mohammed Gaiez al-Sabah (R) and Mohammed Rubaa Abdallah, suspects of the terrorist bombing of the Taba Hilton last October appear before an emergency state security court in Ismailiya, Egypt (EPA)
ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters)-Three Egyptians, one of them still a fugitive, went on trial on Saturday charged with involvement in bombings in October at Egyptian Red Sea tourist resorts which killed 34 people.
Mohamed Sabah and Mohamed Abdullah Rabaa both pleaded not guilty to charges that they were involved in the attacks in the Sinai Peninsula resorts which were popular with Israelis.
Mohamed Ahmed Saleh Fulayfel, the third suspect, was being tried in absentia in the emergency state security court in Ismailia, 115 km (70 miles) northeast of Cairo.
Sabah and Rabaa were arrested two months after the attacks on the Taba Hilton hotel on Egypt”s border with Israel and on two beach resorts further south popular with foreign backpackers.
Israeli officials say 12 Israelis were among the dead.
Prosecutor Ashraf al-Esmawy said the charges included pre-meditated murder, resisting the authorities with force and destroying private and public property and vehicles.
Sabah and Rabaa told the court that they had been subjected to torture during their detention.
A government-financed rights body said in May that torture was commonplace in Egyptian detention facilities and listed at least nine deaths. The Egyptian authorities says any cases of torture are isolated and that it prosecutes torturers.
Judge Ahmed Mohamed al-Khashab ordered an official medical examination to see if the two suspects had been tortured. He said the next hearing would take place on July 24.
Defense lawyer Ahmed Seif al-Islam, who said he had met the defendants for the first time on Saturday, had requested an adjournment to study the case files.
Egypt”s official MENA news agency said the bomb suspects made detonators, including one using a mobile phone, and obtained explosives from old anti-tank mines found in the desert in Sinai which had been left over from wars in the area.
Egypt and Israel have fought several wars in the Sinai Peninsula.
Egyptian Public Prosecutor Maher Abdel Wahed has previously said the attacks, which authorities say were planned by a Palestinian, were not linked to a wider militant network.
Officials have said the Palestinian and one of his accomplices died in the Taba blast when their bomb went off early. They have also said some other suspects were killed in gunbattles when the police tried to arrest them.
The Egyptian authorities have detained hundreds of people in connection with the bombing investigation from the El Arish area in north Sinai where officials say the Palestinian and other suspects lived.
Egyptian bedouin Mohammed Rubaa Addallah, a suspect of the terrorist bombing of Taba Hilton last October in Sinai, Egypt is led into court to appear before an emergency state security court in Ismailiya, Egypt (EPA)
Egyptian bedouin Mohammed Gaiez al-Sabah, a suspect in the 7 October 2004 terrorist bombing of the Taba Hilton in Sinai, Egypt is led into court in Ismailiya, Egypt, 2 July 2005 (EPA)