Hizbullah Denies Any Role in Egypt Prison Breakout

Hizbullah on Tuesday stressed that it has “nothing to do at all” with the issue of helping inmates escape from an Egyptian prison in 2011, although it acknowledged that its official Sami Shehab was among those who made their way out.

Commenting on an Egyptian court's verdict that said Hizbullah and Hamas helped prisoners, including current President Mohamed Morsi, escape from the Wadi Natrun prison during the 2011 uprising, Hizbullah stressed that it had “nothing to do at all with the incidents that led to liberating prisoners from the Wadi Natrun prison … who included our jihadist brother Sami Shehab.”

The party urged “the authorities concerned to seek accuracy and facts before issuing accusations and releasing verdicts,” noting that none of its members had taken part in the operation.

The head of the court in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya has asked the state prosecutor to investigate the circumstances of the January 2011 breakout from the Wadi Natrun prison, northwest of the capital.

He said that the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which Morsi hails, had organized the escape with members of Hamas and Hizbullah.

The court also called on the state prosecutor to ask Interpol to circulate an arrest warrant for Sami Shehab, a Hizbullah official who had been convicted of plotting attacks in Egypt and who was serving a prison sentence at Wadi Natrun before escaping, along with members of Hamas.

Morsi said at the time that there had been no need for he and 33 other members of the Brotherhood to escape as the people "opened the doors" for them.