An Egyptian man charged over the deadly attacks in Sinai last October and suspected of links to last month’s multiple bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh was killed on Monday by security forces, police said.
Mohammed Saleh Felifel (24) was killed in the Ataqa Mountains, east of Cairo and across from the Sinai peninsula, police said. His wife was wounded during an exchange of fire.
Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said after the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks, which killed at least 67 people, among them several foreigners, that investigators were probing possible links with the October attacks in the resorts of Taba and Nuweiba.
Felifel was being tried in absentia since July 2 over his involvement in the October bombing, which killed 34 people, including Israelis.
Two other men, Mohammed Gaiez al-Sabah and Mohammed Rubaa Abdallah, are also standing trial and appearing at the high state security court in Ismaialiya, north-east of Cairo.
Their lawyers have denied that the three are linked to the group that carried out the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings.
Both Sabah and Abdallah have also denied any involvement in the October triple bombings and charged that confessions had been extracted under torture.
A doctor was due to examine the suspects to establish whether they had been tortured, but their lawyers said the report is not finished and that the trial has been adjourned until mid-August.
Three Islamist groups, one allegedly linked to al-Qaeda, have separately claimed the Sharm attacks. — Sapa-AFP