Mahmoud Ezat sentenced to life in 'Border Infiltration' case

CAIRO – 17 April 2022: Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Sunday former Deputy Supreme Guide of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood Mahmoud Ezat to life in the “Border Infirtlation” case.

Ezat is convicted of taking part in orchestrating the incident in coordination with Hamas, Hezbollah, and leaders of the international body of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ezat provided fake national IDs, money, information, cars and motorcycles to the foreign elements who committed the crime and who were trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The mission of the perpetrators was storming into prisons to free Egyptians and foreigners affiliated to them as well as criminals to invoke mayhem in 2011 amid Arab Spring. It is noted that in the process, they killed a number of police officers either.

The foreign militants entered Egypt through the borders with Gaza Strip in Sinai Peninsula, composing the eastern land borders of the country. The most prominent establishment they broke into is Wadi Al Natroun Prison, the main detention of terrorist elements.

Ezat, 78, had remained a fugitive for seven years since 2013 until he was arrested in 2020 while hiding in an apartment in New Cairo. The arrest was carried out through a raid by security forces against the suspected flat upon a warrant by the Supreme State Security Prosecution.

A statement by Egypt’s interior ministry indicated that several laptops and mobile phones, with encryption software installed to secure communication with leaders and members of the banned group inside the country and abroad, were found.

Ezzat was in charge of forming the Muslim Brotherhood’s armed wing and supervising major terrorist operations since 30 June 2013 until his arrest.

In August 2017, a Cairo criminal court accused Ezzat of planning attacks within Egypt from abroad and added his name to the country’s national terror list.*

“Operations supervised by Ezzat include the assassination of former general prosecutor Hisham Barakat in 2015, policeman Wael Tahoun in 2015, top-ranked army officer Adel Ragei in 2016, and the attempted assassination of the general prosecutor’s former aide Zakaria Abdel-Azim in 2016,” the statement said.

It also charged him with supervising a deadly car blast outside the capital’s Cancer Institute in August 2019 which killed 20 people.

The convict was handed two death sentences in the cases of spying for Hamas and Wadi al-Natroun Prison Break.

Ezzat joined the Brotherhood in the 1960s, and later, married the daughter of former supreme guide Mahdi Akef. He spent time in prison during the rule of presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Hosni Mubarak, and has been a member of the group's Guidance Bureau since 1981.

Since 2013, Ezat has been convicted in absentia on terrorism-related charges and twice sentenced to death. Hence, after his arrest, Ezzat had face retrial under the same charges.