Russian plane crash referred to Egyptian prosecutor

Egypt's Public Prosecutor has referred the case of the Russian airliner 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 prosecutor after a Russian investigation raised suspicion of criminal activity. Moscow stopped all civilian flights to Egypt, a popular destination for Russian tourists, after the plane crashed in Sinai on October 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.<br/>