UK includes Lewaa al-Thawra, Hasm to terrorist organizations list

CAIRO – 22 December 2017: The United Kingdom has included the organizations of Hasm movement and Islamist militant group Revolution Brigade (Lewaa Al-Thawra) into the list of terrorist organizations.

The British government stated that after reviewing the evidence of the attacks carried out by both Hasm and Lewaa Al-Thawra against the Egyptian security personnel, they concluded that these groups met the prohibitions to qualify them as terrorist organizations. The inclusion of these terrorist organizations would enhance the ability of the UK government to disrupt the activities of these terrorist organizations.

”We have said that we will not leave Egypt alone in its fight against terrorism. We are using today's full legal force against two terrorist organizations that have killed many Egyptians ... This will strengthen our common efforts to eradicate terrorism and the ideologies that feed it. I am confident that our steadfast societies will defeat these toxic groups,” the British Ambassador to Cairo John Casson.

Lately, Hasm has been associated with most of the terrorist attacks that have occurred in Egypt during the last year. Hasm is supposedly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group which is deemed illegal in Egypt. However, the Brotherhood’s media spokesman, Talaat Fahmi, denied links to Hasm, according to the Turkish-led Anadul agency in December 2016. He said the Brotherhood could never be linked to those who commit violence and bloodshed.

Lewaa al-Thawra group announced its formation on August 21, 2016, when it uploaded pictures and a dramatized video of an attack on a security checkpoint in Monufia governorate that left two policemen dead. Lewaa Al-Thawra’s formation has been welcomed by Hasm.