Egypt arrests senior Hasm operative linked to 2025 terror plot: Interior ministry

CAIRO – 29 March 2026: The Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday the arrest of "a senior figure in the Hasm terrorist movement," saying in a video statement that he had been involved in a recent hostile scheme targeting the Egyptian state.

Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated figure Ali Mahmoud Abdel Wanees was apprehended and deported from an African country, the ministry said in the statement broadcast on Extra News.

Abdel Wanees had previously been sentenced to life in prison on multiple terror-related charges, including the attempted targeting of the presidential plane, according to a 2022 case, and the assassination of police officer Maged Abdel Razek.

The ministry aired a detailed confession by Abdel Wanees outlining his involvement in terrorist operations, participation in military training abroad, and the identities of those who assisted him.

2025 Terror Plot

Hasm, defined by the state as the Muslim Brotherhood’s armed wing, attempted to conduct attacks against security and economic establishments, the ministry said in 2025.

To eliminate the threat, the police raided a Hasm hideout in Cairo’s Boulaq Ad Dakrour in July, eliminating two men belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood in fire exchange, according to the ministry.

During last year’s operation, a citizen who happened to be passing by during the raid tragically died of wounds after he had been struck by stray bullets from the terrorists, the ministry said.

An officer was also injured while attempting to rescue the civilian.

Hasm has been designated as a terrorist group by Egypt as well as the United States and the United Kingdom.

Confession Details

Abdel Wanees during the video confessed to participating in several terrorist crimes, including targeting the Agizi checkpoint in Menoufia.

 

He also admitted to planting an explosive device outside a police training center in Tanta, which resulted in the killing and injury of several police personnel.

Among the crimes he confessed to was involvement in the assassination of police officer Adel Ragae in front of his home in Obour district in Lower Egypt’s Qalyubia.

The suspect further revealed that he had infiltrated Gaza through a tunnel a decade ago for military training under instructions from a fugitive Muslim Brotherhood leader, identified by the ministry as Yehia Moussa.

He stated that he had coordinated with leaders of the African militant group Al-Mourabitoun through the executed militant Hisham Ashmawy, and helped establish a training camp in a neighboring country to train movement members on the use of anti-aircraft missiles, heavy weapons, and explosives, the ministry said.

Abdel Wanees also admitted that in 2019, alongside several fugitive Hasm leaders, he took part in planning several terrorist operations in Egypt.

The plans involved dispatching trained operatives to booby-trap vehicles, one of which later exploded outside the National Cancer Institute in Cairo, the ministry said.

In 2025, he said he assigned two figures based abroad: Mahmoud Shehata El-Ged and Mostafa Mohamed Abdel Wahab to return to Egypt to carry out hostile operations, the ministry said, but they failed after being tracked and arrested by security authorities.

Abdel Wanees also confessed to co-founding, along with other movement leaders, a media platform called Maydan, aimed at spreading false information and rumors about the country’s internal situation.

Maydan sought to incite citizens, particularly young people, to carry out hostile acts against state institutions in an attempt to enable the group’s return to the political scene, the ministry said.