29 December 2018•Update: 30 December 2018
By Mustafa Habbush
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Palestinian group Hamas has denied the veracity of a testimony by former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about the group’s involvement in a mass jailbreak in 2011.
In a court testimony in Cairo on Wednesday, Mubarak, 90, said 800 Hamas gunmen sneaked into Egypt during the 2011 uprising that swept the autocrat president from power.
He said the gunmen had participated in attacks on prisons to free detainees from the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah groups.
“We categorically deny Mubarak’s testimony about sending 800 gunmen to Cairo to free Egyptian, Palestinian and Arab prisoners,” Hamas said in a statement on Saturday.
Decrying what it described as attempts to “drag Hamas into Egyptian internal issues”, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, reiterated its commitment of its policy of non-interference in the affairs of other countries, including Egypt.
Mubarak’s testimony came at the retrial of his successor, Mohamed Morsi, who faces charges of participating in a mass jailbreak in 2011.
Wednesday’s court session was the first time for Mubarak and Morsi to see one another since the former relinquished power in 2011 following 18 days of countrywide demonstrations.
Morsi was elected president in 2012, one year after Mubarak stepped down.
After a single year in power, however, Morsi was himself ousted in a military coup and slapped with a host of criminal charges, which he and his supporters insist are politically motivated.
Following Morsi’s ouster in mid-2013, the Egyptian authorities launched a relentless crackdown on political dissent, killing hundreds and imprisoning thousands of Morsi’s supporters and members of his now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.
