The Ministry of Interior has implicated a police officer in the escape attempt of Adel Habara as he was transferred from the court to prison June 28, al-Masry al-Youm reported.
Habara is charged with killing 25 junior policemen in North Sinai’s city of Rafah Aug. 19, 2013 in a case known as the “Rafah Massacre.”
Investigations suggested that the accused officer colluded in a failed escape attempt by intentionally skipping traditional security procedures, reported Youm7.
Several figures criticized the delay of the Ministry of Interior in revealing the results of the investigations after the conflicting statements that has been issued saying that Habara has stepped out of the transferring vehicles while others say that he didn’t get out of the vehicle.
After the trial of Habara along with other 34 co-defendants on June 28, Habara reportedly entered the prisoner transport vehicle with no handcuffs. On the way to Tora Prison, the policemen said the rear door of the vehicle was opened and three suspects escaped.
A central security soldier chased Habara and arrested him.
However, several sources within the Ministry of Interior denied his escape, saying the suspects caused “a state of rampage” inside the transferring vehicle and that security forces controlled the situation.
Deputy Minister of Interior for Media and Public Relations Major General Abdel Fatah Othman said that it is “untrue” that Habara tried to escape, adding that the suspect didn’t leave the vehicle as some claimed.
According to prosecution investigations, the 35 suspects are accused of committing terrorist attacks in Sinai and Cairo, espionage, vandalism of public property and conspiring with an Al-Qaeda militant group in Iraq.
Habara was sentenced to death in absentia for killing soldiers in the Nile Delta last year, according to AP.
