Hamas' leader in the Gaza Strip denied Thursday that Hamas was involved in the 25 January uprising against Hosni Mubarak, after the former interior minister accused the group of responsibility for the unrest.
“Hamas did not in the least interfere in Egyptian affairs, either before or after the 25 January revolution, which [Hamas] regards as purely Egyptian,” Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement after meeting with People's Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny Thursday, in the first time a Hamas official has visited Egypt's Parliament.
In the closing argument of his trial on Wednesday, Former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly accused Hamas and the Lebanon-based Hizbullah of “sending infiltrators to Egypt” during the 18-day uprising, during which more than 850 Egyptians were killed.
“Elements from the Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas' Ezz Eddin al-Qassam Brigades [the group's military arm] took part in the protests by lurking amid peaceful protesters to cause a state of chaos and sabotage,” Adly told the court, according to the state-owned news agency MENA.
Adly, along with Mubarak and six former senior security officials, is awaiting verdict on the charge of involvement in killing protesters during the 18-day uprising.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
