Prague, Czech Republic – Youssef Moursi, a 25-year-old Egyptian university student and activist in Prague, has spent the last six months in pre-trial detention, accused of an arson attack in March against a Czech weapons factory with alleged ties to Israel. Moursi is one of 11 people being charged with “terrorism” for the attack and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The case has echoes of legal battles in the United Kingdom, where Palestine Action activists have been sentenced under terrorism laws, and Germany, where five people accused of targeting a site linked to Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons maker, are on trial.
Moursi, a humanities student at Charles University, said in a statement to Al Jazeera that “a group of armed and masked policemen smashed down [my] front door”, two days after the alleged attack, in which he denies any involvement. He spent the first three months of his detention in solitary confinement, according to his lawyer. Today, he is allowed one hour outside his cell and 20 minutes on the phone a day, with visits from friends and family every two weeks.
Cizinsky said part of the evidence police have against Moursi is that on the day after the fire, he posted advice for pro-Palestinian activists on social media, should they be approached by officers. Cizinsky called this “ridiculous.” “If you put into Google what to do when interviewed by the police, the first advice is wait for your lawyer. But if you say it as a pro-Palestinian activist, if you write it to your friends, then it’s reason against you that you are guilty,” Cizinsky said.
At the beginning of the investigation, Cizinsky said he faced pressure from the authorities not to take the case. As a result, he was not present during the initial interrogation and house raid on Moursi’s flat. Moursi’s detention has so far been reviewed twice, with the court deciding each time that he must stay in prison.
His detention will be reviewed again in early December, and the trial is expected to start within a year. The fire broke out in the early hours of March 20 at LPP Holding, a Czech weapons factory in Pardubice, about 120km (75 miles) east of Prague. No one was injured but police said the building was destroyed, with damage estimates reaching hundreds of millions of crowns, or at least four million euros.
A previously unknown pro-Palestinian group called The Earthquake Faction claimed responsibility and posted videos of the fire, saying it targeted LPP Holding for its cooperation with Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons company. In 2023, LPP Holding and Elbit Systems announced a partnership to build drones in the Czech Republic. But on the day of the fire, an LPP Holding spokesperson told Czech media the collaboration never happened.
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