Security services arrested a Syrian called Basile Thabit Michael and seven others on charges of forming a Jihad group that was trying to help the Jihad Group of Iraq.

The Supreme State Security Prosecution started to investigate into the case yesterday (case number 8/2008) and also started another investigation with another group accused of forming a Jihad organization at Ain Shams and Marg. The group emir was put into custody for 15 days.

Investigation revealed that the Syrian was a Christian who had converted to Islam, had been named Essam and had come to Egypt to study at al-Azhar two years ago.

State investigation bureaus charged the defendant with taking on the leadership of a group made up of seven other suspects who had embraced Jihad as their thought and aimed at overthrowing the regime and infiltrating into al-Azhar university student circles.

Investigation also revealed that the suspects were trained to make grenades, explosives and anti-tank missiles to help violent organizations in Iraq.

Investigation stressed that the group members had planned to carry out terrorist operations in Egypt. Among confiscated articles were religious books and PCs, but no explosive material was found.

The Syrian denied all accusations and said that he had converted to Islam for personal conviction, did not join any organization and was busy with his studies at al-Azhar University.

The prosecution decided to postpone his investigation.

Meanwhile, the prosecution also started an investigation yesterday with mosque preacher Abdel Salam Amin Abdel Salam and charged him with leading a Jihad group made up of 18 suspects in Ain Shams and Marg.

The prosecution decided to keep him under custody for 15 days starting from the end of his detention period (Case 3/2008, Supreme State Security Prosecution).

Based on investigations, he took charge of leading a banned organization, training on booby-trapped cars, logging on to al-Qaeda websites and downloading material about how to make explosives and video shots about armed attacks against US occupation forces in Iraq.

According to the investigations, he also entrusted some of the suspects with monitoring some public personalities in preparation for their assassination.
The accused denied all charges and called them pure lies.