CAIRO – Members of a cell belonging to the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and convicted of plotting attacks in Egypt were among the escapees in a weekend prison break, a security official told AFP on Thursday.
The 22 cell members fled on Sunday along with members of Palestinian group Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and thousands of other convicts during a mass breakout amid anti-government protests in Egypt. The Hezbollah members escaped from Wadi Natrun north of Cairo after guards abandoned their posts.
Last April a Cairo court handed down stiff prison sentences to 26 people in connection with a plot to carry out attacks on the Suez Canal and Sinai resorts. Four were sentenced in absentia.
