Monday, August 18, 2014

Soccer Terrorism: Assassination Attempt on Zamalek Soccer President in Egypt

8/18/2014


CAIRO – A group of gunmen on Sunday tried to assassinate the president of Egypt’s Zamalek soccer club, Mortada Mansur, who emerged unscathed although a journalist and a worker for the organization were wounded, Mansur told Efe by telephone.

“At 3 a.m., when I was getting ready to leave the club offices after reviewing the security camera system, two cars approached me from behind and their passengers fired 14 shots at me and wounded a reporter and a club worker,” Mansur said.

The Zamalek chief said the case was now in the hands of the Attorney General’s Office and he accused “the Muslim Brotherhood and the extremists who engage in hooliganism in the streets of the city” of being responsible for the attack.

The Brotherhood, meanwhile, denied involvement in the incident and accused Mansur of “creating this to make propaganda and place himself on the side of the (Egyptian) regime,” Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mustafa al-Khatib told Efe.

A member of the security forces quoted by the official Mena news agency, said that an investigatory team had been formed to seek out the attackers and that security camera videotapes were being analyzed with an eye toward capturing the culprits.

The source added that security measures had been increased at the club’s offices in preparation for demonstrations there by followers of the club.

Mansur added that last week several radicals entered the same offices and injured another reporter and the other day several people opened fire at his house, although he was not home at the time.

Mansur, besides being the head of Zamalek and an attorney, was initially a candidate in Egypt’s presidential elections last May, although eventually he withdrew and asked his supporters to cast their votes for head of state Abdelfatah al-Sisi, who ended up winning the election.



source

No comments: