Egypt Says It Foiled Plot to Oust Mubarak

Egyptian authorities announced Thursday that four army officers and more than two dozen civilians have been arrested for plotting to overthrow the government of President Hosni Mubarak in a move to create a fundamentalist Islamic state.

It was the first time that army officers have been publicly implicated by officials in a plot to overthrow the government since President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by military members of the outlawed Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War), a Muslim extremist organization that advocates establishing an Iranian-style government in Egypt.

A statement by the public prosecutor’s office said the 33 people accused in Thursday’s indictment had links to Islamic Jihad, which has survived concentrated government attempts to wipe it out and recently appears to have become more active in this country.

Arms and Explosives

The statement added that the group had obtained arms, ammunition and explosives from military depots with the help of its army members and had planned to use them for a series of attacks aimed at starting “a jihad to overthrow the ruling system by force.”

The indictment raised but did not answer a number of questions about the nature of the group and its organization, the strength of Islamic Jihad in Egypt at present and, most disturbing for the government, its links with the military.

“In all of the talk about Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt since Sadat’s death, the two great unknowns are the numbers (of the extremists) and the extent to which they have been able to penetrate the armed forces,” one Western diplomat said.

While there has never been any sign or suggestion of Muslim extremist tendencies among the senior officer corps, doubts about the lower ranks have persisted ever since Sadat was assassinated as he watched a military parade in October, 1981.

“One of the real shocks of the Sadat assassination was the light it shed on the organization of the fundamentalists and their infiltration of the lower ranks of the armed forces. The critical question now is still, ‘What do the people at the lower levels of the army think?’ ” another diplomat said.

He added that while Islamic Jihad may be small and its penetration of the army relatively shallow, Sadat’s slaying showed that it “only takes a few organized people and an opportunity like a military parade” to commit an assassination.

The indictment did not identify the conspirators, but security sources said the highest ranking officer among the four was a major. The group, they added, was led by a civilian engineer and included a number of doctors, teachers and other professionals, as well as university students.

Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt traditionally has been strong on university campuses, especially in the engineering and medical faculties whose graduating students have gone on to win majorities in elections to their various professional associations and university faculty clubs.

Clashes on Campuses

Last month, one Muslim student was killed and scores of militants were arrested during clashes with police at Asyut University in upper Egypt. Earlier this week, a militant Islamic preacher, Hafez Salama, was detained briefly when he tried to address a gathering in an Asyut mosque.

The 33 accused in Thursday’s indictment raised the number of Muslim extremists awaiting trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government to more than 100. Last month, 75 fundamentalists were indicted in a series of bomb attacks against liquor stores and video clubs renting films that the fundamentalists consider immoral.

State Prosecutor Mohammed Guindi said the accused plotters will be tried at an unspecified date on charges punishable upon conviction by terms of up to life in prison.

However, security officials responded with evasive or contradictory answers when pressed by reporters for more information about the case.

Evidence Uncovered

One senior official indicated that investigators had uncovered evidence of a plot to assassinate Mubarak and other high-ranking officials, as well as plans to take over radio and television stations to announce the creation of an Islamic state.

Another source said the group, apparently well organized and divided into civilian and military wings, was responsible for a series of thefts from Christian-owned jewelry stores staged to finance its clandestine operations.

Although the indictment contained charges against 33 people, one unconfirmed report indicated that three of the accused, all civilians, were still at large.

A military spokesman said the cell was uncovered as a result of the arrests of fundamentalists involved in the attacks on video clubs in Cairo this summer. However, other officials, appearing to contradict this, said that security agents first came across the plot in 1984 and have been monitoring the group’s activities ever since.

The Associated Press quoted a source in the Interior Ministry as saying that the plotters were arrested in and outside of Cairo about four months ago.

At about that same time, stories in Egypt’s opposition press reported that security agents had arrested about 30 fundamentalists, including several junior army officers, in Damietta in the Nile Delta. According to the reports, they were accused of seeking to overthrow the regime, stealing weapons and “fomenting sedition inside the armed forces.”

It was not immediately clear, however, if the members of this group were the same people named in Thursday’s indictment.