Egypt

Brotherhood HQ violence witnesses: Gunmen fired from inside the building

Security Inspector Sami Abdel Razek Ghoneim, a prosecution witness of the violence that took place outside the Guidance Bureau building of the Muslim Brotherhood, told the Cairo Criminal Court on Monday that he saw gunmen firing at demonstrators from inside the building.

Mohamed Badie, the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, his deputy Khairat al-Shater and 15 other leaders of the group are accused of killing nine demonstrators outside the building on 30 June of last year.
 
Ghoneim also said that a vehicle arrived to the scene to supply the gunmen with more weapons after they ran out of ammunition and that security forces arrested a man while doing so.
 
He said the members of the Guidance Office had given prior orders to a certain Abdel Rehim to mobilize fighters and defend the building in any way. “He was the link between the fighters and the Guidance Bureau,” he said.
 
He added that the shooting came from downstairs and from upstairs and that the fighters fled from the back door when they ran out of ammunition.
 
Lieutenant Ahmed Hashim Syed Hedeya said the walls of the building were heightened before 30 June and connected with electrified barbed wire. He also said the police arrested people at the scene carrying weapons.
 
He added that Mohamed Abdel Azim Mohamed, the fugitive defendant who was in charge of securing the building, called him on 30 June and asked him to release certain Brotherhood members that were arrested.
 
“Nobody was allowed to enter that building without the approval of Mohamed Badie and the leaders of the Guidance Bureau,” he said.
 
He said further that defendant Mohamed al-Beshlawy admitted to him that the people that were arrested were on their way to defend the place. “He too asked me to release them as a favor that he will never forget,” he said. “He also told me Badie knows there were gunmen inside the building.”
 
He added that the residents of the area reported the arrival of cars to the scene. “The security forces stopped the cars but did not inspect them until I arrived to the scene,” he said.
 
 
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
 

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