Libya Court Sentences Gadhafi Son to Death/ Jail for Jordanians Convicted of Recruiting for Hamas/Egypt Police Kill Two Suspected Jihadists in Cairo Raid

Egypt Police Kill Two Suspected Jihadists in Cairo Raid
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/28 July/15/Egyptian police killed two alleged jihadists suspected of involvement in the recent bombing of the Italian consulate in Cairo in a raid Monday on an apartment in the capital, security officials said. The two men were killed in a gunfight when a police team went to arrest them, the officials said. “The two jihadists belonged to Ajnad Misr (Soldiers of Egypt) and investigations reveal that they could be involved in the bombing of the Italian consulate,” one official said, adding they were also wanted “for their role in assassinating policemen”. The Islamic State group had claimed the July 11 bombing of the consulate — the first such attack on a foreign mission in Egypt since jihadists launched a campaign against the country’s security forces two years ago following a crackdown on Islamists. A civilian was killed and nine others were wounded in the attack. Ajnad Misr has previously claimed several deadly attacks in Cairo, particularly targeting policemen, and have planted bombs outside key buildings such as the presidential palace and Cairo University. In April, the group’s leader Hammam Mohamed Attiyah was shot dead in a gunfight with police at a Cairo apartment. Police say Attiya previously belonged to Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State group, and that he broke away in 2013 to found Ajnad Misr, a group operating mainly in Cairo. On July 1, nine militants, including senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Nasser al-Houfia, were killed in a similar police raid on an apartment in Cairo. The Muslim Brotherhood said the nine were leaders of the movement, which was designated a “terrorist group” after the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Cairo Furniture Factory Fire Kills 19 Workers
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/28 July/15/At least 19 workers died in a fire that gutted an Egyptian furniture factory north of Cairo on Tuesday, security and health officials said. Twenty-two more workers suffered from burns and smoke inhalation in the blaze in the al-Helw factory on the outskirts of the capital. Security officials said the fire raged through the three-story factory and its warehouse after a gas cylinder exploded. Video footage posted on social networks showed thick smoke billowing from the factory as rescuers crowded to help the victims. Such accidents are relatively common in Egypt, given the dilapidated state of many buildings and failure to adhere to industrial safety norms. In September 2014, six people died and 22 were injured when a textile dyeing factory collapsed in Cairo in an accident blamed on poor construction.

Jail for Jordanians Convicted of Recruiting for Hamas
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/28 July/15/Twelve Jordanians were sentenced on Tuesday to jail terms of up to 15 years for their involvement in a cell recruiting members for the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. Of 16 defendants, “four were acquitted and 12 convicted of terrorist offenses”, a judicial source said. “Four were sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison, while three detainees got five years,” the source said. One was sentenced to three years and four to one year. All were found guilty of manufacturing explosives, carrying out acts to disturb the peace and “recruiting people on behalf of armed groups”.Ties between Jordan and Hamas, the de facto power in the Gaza Strip, have been strained since 1999 when the kingdom expelled the Palestinian movement’s chief Khaled Meshaal. Two years previously, Meshaal had survived an attempt by the Israeli secret service Mossad to kill kim. Relations between Jordan and Hamas worsened further in 2006 when Amman accused the group of arms trafficking from Syria.

Libya Court Sentences Gadhafi Son to Death
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/28 July/15/ A Libyan court Tuesday sentenced a son and eight aides of slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi to death for crimes during the 2011 uprising, in a verdict strongly criticized by rights campaigners. Seif al-Islam, the strongman’s one-time heir apparent who is also wanted by the International Criminal Court, was tried in his absence because he is held by militia opposed to the Tripoli authorities. Former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi and Gadhafi’s last prime minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmudi were also sentenced to death, although they can appeal to the supreme court. The 37 defendants were charged with crimes including murder and complicity in incitement to rape during the 2011 revolution.
Libya has been wracked by conflict since Gadhafi’s overthrow, with rival governments and powerful militias battling for control of key cities and the country’s oil riches. The trial, which opened in the Libyan capital in April last year, has been dogged by criticism from human rights watchdogs and an unresolved dispute with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over jurisdiction in the case of the Gadhafi son. Rights groups say the trial was deeply flawed and missed an opportunity to expose the crimes of the Gadhafi regime. Amnesty International called the death sentences “appalling”. “Instead of helping to establish the truth and ensuring accountability for serious violations during the 2011 armed conflict, this trial exposes the weakness of a criminal justice system which is hanging on by a thread in a war-torn country with no central authority,” Amnesty’s Philip Luther said. Human Rights Watch’s Joe Stork said the trial was “plagued by persistent, credible allegations of fair trial breaches that warrant independent and impartial judicial review”.
The militia holding Seif al-Islam in the southwestern hill town of Zintan is aligned with the internationally recognized government which fled to the remote east last August when a rival militia alliance seized the capital and set up its own administration. Prosecutor general Siddick al-Sour acknowledged that there was no prospect of Seif al-Islam facing the court’s sentence any time soon but said that was a matter for politicians.
“The court pronounced sentence and has nothing to do with the political conflict,” Sour said. Seif al-Islam’s sole appearances before the court were by video link and there had been none since May last year. The U.N. Security Council referred the conflict in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 amid Gadhafi’s repression of the popular uprising against his decades-old regime. Seif al-Islam is wanted by the Hague-based court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. ICC prosecutors say that as part of his father’s “inner circle”, he “conceived and orchestrated a plan to deter and quell, by all means, the civilian demonstrations against Gadhafi’s regime”. Moammar Gadhafi, who ruled Libya for four decades, was captured and killed by rebels in October 2011. Three of his sons died in the 2011 uprising. Another, Saadi, was extradited to Libya from Niger in March 2014. Seif al-Islam has been held in Zintan since his capture in November the same year despite repeated ICC demands for Libya to hand him over for trial. Twenty-nine other defendants, including Senussi and Mahmudi, appeared in court for Tuesday’s sentencing. They were brought into the black cage in blue prison uniforms, some with their heads shaved. Most sat impassively in the dock. Senussi has been in custody since September 2012 when he was handed over by Mauritania, where he had sought refuge after the regime’s overthrow. “He has from day one had no effective legal representation, no access to his family and the outside world, and no ability to prepare any defense against the charges,” his international legal team said. His 17-year-old daughter Salma said her father had been denied a fair trial. “Even if my father did something wrong, I would ask them to put him in a real court in a place with rule of law,” she told AFP from her home in Britain. The court sentenced eight other defendants to life in prison, seven to 12 years, four to 10, three to six and one to five. Four were acquitted and one was ordered confined to a psychiatric hospital.