Hasm Movement claims responsibility for an explosion that killed a police officer and wounded four soldiers – File photo
CAIRO – 28 July 2018: Recent investigations of the national security agency on terrorist groups revealed that Muslim Brotherhood leaders recruited policemen to provide their spin-offs; Hasm (deterrence) and Lewa’ El Thawra (Revolutionary Brigades) with classified information that they might use in their terrorist acts.
Brotherhood leaders inside Egypt have recruited two police officers in exchange for money so that they could provide them with leaks on the timing and directions of their targets.
The investigations concluded with including the two police officers convicted with assisting terrorist organizations to the list of defendants in a case that concerns the founding of Hasm.
Members of both Hasm and Lewaa al-Thawra terrorist movements revealed during the investigations to be intellectually trained to combat countries' regimes and governments, aiming to destabilize and topple them.
According to some of the defendants' confessions, Egypt's Supreme State Security affirmed that the two formations were based on takfiri ideas. It was assured that the terrorist plans of Hasm and Lewaa al-Thawra groups targeted Egypt's stability and security.
Currently, there are about 278 defendants investigated in the case; however, only 52 of them gave complete confessions regarding their roles as part of the terrorist groups.
It was also revealed during the investigations that the terrorist formations have about 21 different residences in the countries' governorates, including Damietta, Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Menoufia, Fayoum, Qalyoubia, Assiut, Sharqiah and Beheira governorates.
It was proved that the two armed groups targeted vital buildings and organizations' headquarters in addition to several police officials.
The defendants’ confessions also assured that the armed groups were working on manufacturing arms, not just using them in terrorist acts.
Hasm group is supposedly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group which is deemed illegal in Egypt. However, the Brotherhood’s media spokesman, Talaat Fahmi, denied the Brotherhood’s links to Hasm to Turkish-led Anadul agency in December 2016. He said the Brotherhood could never be linked to those who commit violence and bloodshed.
Tal’at Habib, a researcher and expert on Islamic movements, told Egypt Today on Friday that Hasm is directly linked to the Brotherhood’s members and leaders, directly refuting Fahmi’s statement. Habib cited a Hasm statement that came out after top Brotherhood leader Mohamed Kamal’s death in October 2016. They vowed revenge for his killing.
Hasm's first statement was issued in July 2016 when the group claimed responsibility for the killing of a senior policeman named Mahmoud Abdel Hamid in Fayoum. Hamid was the head of the investigations department in Fayoum’s Tamya district.
According to Habib, Hasm is the crystallized form of militant groups that grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, such as the Ikhwan Brigades and the Popular Resistance. The group formed after the violent dispersal during the Rabaa and al-Nahda sit-ins in July 2013.
“Hasm’s methods and techniques are mainly primitive and of minimal costs,” Habib said. He added that they also get some of their arms by stealing them from police stations and ambushes.
CAIRO - 22 July 2017: In less than two weeks, the militant group Hasm has claimed responsibility for three deadly attacks that claimed the lives of more than four policemen and injured dozens. A number of questions swirl in our minds regarding the little-known Hasm. What is Hasm?
Additional reporting by Aya Samir
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