Moscow stopped all civilian flights to Egypt, a popular destination
for Russian tourists, after the airplane crashed in Sinai on Oct. 31.
A
military investigator from Russia stands near the debris of a Russian
airliner at its crash site at the Hassana area in Arish city, north
Egypt, in this November 1, 2015 file photo.
Egypt's Public Prosecutor Ahmed Sadeq said on Thursday he had referred the case of the Russian airplane that crashed in Sinai last year to State Security prosecutors to look into suspicions that criminal activity brought it down.
The
Egyptian-led committee investigating the crash, in which all 224 people
aboard were killed, said last month it had sent the case to the public
prosecution after a Russian investigation raised suspicion of criminal
activity.
Moscow stopped all civilian flights to
Egypt, a popular destination for Russian tourists, after the airplane
crashed in Sinai on Oct. 31.
Russia has long said a bomb destroyed the airliner. Islamic State,
whose Egyptian affiliate is waging an insurgency in the Sinai,
immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and later said it
smuggled the explosive aboard in a soft drink can.
But
Egyptian officials did not acknowledge evidence of foul play until
February, when President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a televised speech
that terrorists had brought down the plane to hurt tourism and
relations with Russia.
An official Egyptian
confirmation that a bomb brought down the Airbus A-321 jet could expose
Egypt to compensation payments to the families of the victims, most of
them holiday-makers in search of winter sun.
The
crash has called into question Egypt's campaign to eradicate Islamist
militancy and damaged its tourism sector, a cornerstone of the economy.
Islamist
militants have stepped up attacks on Egyptian soldiers and police since
Sisi, as army chief, toppled freely elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
Islamic
State's online magazine carried a photo of a pineapple-flavoured
Schweppes soft drink it said was used to make an improvised bomb that
blew the airliner out of the sky.
An EgyptAir mechanic whose cousin joined Islamic State in Syria is suspected of planting the bomb, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in January.
A
senior security official at the airline denied that any of its
employees had been arrested or were under suspicion, and an Interior
Ministry official also said there had been no arrests
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