Official Egyptian report: UAE funded sabotage groups in Morsi-era

A report shown by the Cairo Criminal Court revealed that the UAE financed an opposition group during the era of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

At the 55th session of the re-trial of Morsi and 25 others, in the well-known “prison break” case during the 25 January 2011 revolution, the court presented details which revealed the involvement of the UAE.

According to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk, the court reviewed a report entitled “For the Public Prosecutor’s Advisor,” dated 19 February 2013, wherein it was written that it is highly confidential and should be torn after being read. The report dealt with the facts of Minutes No. 609 / 2013 of Qasr El-Nil officers. It indicated that, on 30 January, the Qasr El-Nil Police Department wrote a report, in which the editor had proved that gangs carried out systematic criminal projects aimed at creating chaos and assaulting the police forces.

The report presented “official records and reports” prepared by the “security authorities” which stated that “mobile surveillance,” investigations and records revealed that the UAE and its embassy in Cairo were funding “formations to implement systematic criminal projects, whose purpose is to create chaos and assault police forces.

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The record included the name of the agent inside the UAE embassy, called “Nawar.” He provided the suspect, Ihab Mustafa Hassan Ammar, known as Ihab Ammar, with money and received information in return.

The report pointed out that groups positioned behind the Semiramis Hotel; some of whom carried firearms that they used to fire randomly in the air, causing chaos in the vicinity of the hotel. They broke into the hotel in two groups between midnight and three in the morning of the same day and managed to rob some of its contents and fled under the guise of the bullets they fired at the police forces that were chasing them.

The report also indicated that after the police arrested ten criminals who carried out the first wave of attack and while taking legal action against them, another group carried out a second wave. The police officers surrounded eight of them inside the hotel, and the rest managed to escape.

According to the report, one of the criminals fell from injuries by bullets and died afterwards. The editor of the report and the investigator said that he was shot by gunshots fired by a group of rioters towards police forces, to enable him to escape from the incident. However, they fired away from the target and wounded him, and the shooting injured two officers and three recruits of the police forces. One of the accused in Tahrir Square was arrested with a metal safe deposit box. When he was interrogated, he admitted that he had stolen it from inside the hotel.

The investigations indicated that Mohamed Abdel Muti Ibrahim, known as “Mohamed Al Masri,” assumed the management and leadership of the gangs that carried the break-ins into the hotel.

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