CAIRO — Prosecutors have accused Muslim Brotherhood protesters of receiving money to attack the Israeli embassy in Egypt in 2011.

The Supreme State Security Emergency Court has presided over the trial of 76 Islamists accused of attacking the embassies of Israel and Saudi Arabia last year.

Prosecutors have asserted that the protests in September 2011, in which two people were killed and hundreds injured, were organized, and attackers received money to storm the Israeli and Saudi diplomatic facilities.

On March 26, an Egyptian security officer, identified as Capt. Mahmoud Hamada, testified to seeing a defendant pay demonstrators to remain at the protests. Hamada also cited the storming of a security force facility in Cairo in 2011, which included attackers wielding blades.

The Sept. 9 attack on the Israeli embassy saw hundreds of protesters breaking into the compound and rushing the embassy, located on the 18th floor of an office tower. Egyptian security forces, after high- level consultations between Cairo, Israel and the United States, stormed the facility and stopped the protesters from assaulting the remaining Israeli embassy staffers.

Testimony by Hamada as well as another officer, Capt. Ashraf Abdul Gawad, did not cite the source of the money to the protesters. The defendants have been charged with assault, possession of dangerous weapons and damaging property. (Copyright © 2012 East West Services, Inc. 03/28/12)