Yehya Moussa (Ikhwani Militant, Egypt)

• Full name: Yehya Said Ibrahim Moussa
• Pseudonym: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Turkey
• Affiliation: fmr Yehya Moussa Network [YMM]

Yehya Moussa (°ca 1984) is a long-time member of the Muslim Brotherhood who has turned to militancy in recent years. Prior to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, he was a physician and a teacher of medicine at the Azhar University.¹ In February 2013, Moussa became the official spokesperson for the Egyptian Ministry of the Health under Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.²

Following the July 2013 army coup, Moussa participated in demonstrations and sit-in protesters by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. On Jul. 08, he was injured during confrontations with police outside a military headquarters in Qahira’s Heliopolis suburb.³ More than fifty protesters died in the incident. Moussa publicly accused Egyptian troops of having massacred demonstrators. The military authorities removed him from the health ministry in response.⁴ He again sustained injuries when security forces cleared the infamous protest camp at the Raba’a al-Adawiya square in the Nassr City suburb of Qahira.⁵

Moussa fled to Turkey as the Egyptian authorities intensified their crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.⁶ In exile, he grew disaffected with the Brotherhood’s insistence on peaceful resistance to the new government in Egypt.⁷ In the summer of 2014, Moussa began developing contacts with young Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Egypt who shared his desire to confront the authorities.⁸ By February 2015, an informal network of Islamists under his command had emerged. Moussa had key members trained in weapons handling and bomb-making by cadres of the Islamic Resistance Movement [HAMAS; Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya] in the Gaza Strip.⁹

On Jun. 29, 2015, Moussa’s followers killed Egypt’s top prosecutor in a car bomb attack in Qahira.¹⁰ Moussa had supervised the plot from Turkey. Following the successful operation, he directed his associates to start monitoring other targets.¹¹ In February and March 2016, security forces rounded up most of Moussa’s men in a series of swoops across the country.¹²

In 2017, Moussa was tried in absentia for his role in the prosecutor’s killing. In July, he was sentenced to death by an Egyptian court.¹³ Despite an international arrest warrant for him, Moussa continues to live freely in Turkey.¹⁴

Moussa continues to be in contact with Ikhwani militants in Egypt.¹⁵ He reportedly tries to instigate attacks on foreign embassies, senior members of the judiciary and the police.¹⁶ Sources have linked Moussa with attempts to restructure the Revolutionary Brigade [LeT; Liwa al-Thawra].¹⁷