US Places HASM Leaders on Terror List

Hours after designating HASM as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), the US State Department designated two Egyptians - Yahya al-Sayyid Ibrahim Musa and Alaa Ali Ali Mohammed al-Samahi - as Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) for being leaders in the group.
The movement, which is an affiliate of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, was established in 2014 and claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks and operations in Cairo and other governorates in Egypt.
“HASM was previously designated as a Specially
Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224 in
January 2018 for posing a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism,” a
US statement read.
“These designations seek to deny HASM and its
leadership the resources to plan and carry out terrorist attacks,” it added.
“Musa is a Turkey-based HASM leader. Al-Samahi
is as well,” according to the US Department of the Treasury. They are accused
of several cases of violence in Egypt.
“Among other consequences of designations, all
of HASM’s, Musa’s and al-Samahi’s property and interests that are within the
United States or that come within the United States or that come within the
possession or control of US persons, are blocked,” it stated.
Expert on radical movements in
Egypt, Amr Abdel Moneim, told Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Samahi is the founder of
HASM and is in charge of managing its various cells.
Musa was the spokesman for the
health ministry when Egypt was ruled by president Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim
Brotherhood.
Upon Morsi’s ouster, Musa planned and committed several terrorist operations in Egypt, including the attack that killed top prosecutor Hisham Barakat in 2015.