Cairo: Hezbollah cell faces death sentence

CAIRO, April 24 (UPI) -- Legal officials in Cairo outlined their case against an alleged Hezbollah cell plotting attacks on Egyptian soil, opening the possibility for the death penalty.

Cairo claims to have uncovered a Hezbollah cell planted in the Sinai peninsula that is plotting attacks on Egypt and funneling weapons to Hamas.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has admitted to having operatives in Egypt but said they were only there to assist the Palestinian people, noting Hezbollah's guns were drawn solely on Israel.

Moufid Shehab, the Egyptian minister of state for legal and parliamentary affairs, spoke with Cairo's al-Ahram weekly on the Hezbollah allegations.

"Preliminary investigations confirm that the Hezbollah terror cell intended to launch subversive acts in Egypt," he said, adding that the Hezbollah agents had rented apartments near the Suez Canal to spy on the border with Palestine.

Egyptian authorities have raised the possibility of seeking an international arrest warrant for Nasrallah. Meanwhile, the Hezbollah network in Egypt could face a variety of charges, stemming from spying on Egypt to the illegal possession of classified information.

Shehab said the Hezbollah agents, including Nasrallah, could be prosecuted under Article 86 of the Egyptian legal code, which covers the perpetrators of crimes as well as their accomplices.

"Under Article 86, anyone convicted of such charges, which include plotting terrorist acts, could face life imprisonment or the death sentence," he said.