Did Hamas really help the Muslim Brotherhood break open Egypt’s prisons?

AN IMPORTANT STORY
By Ali Abunimah

"The Egyptian military regime has charged President Muhammad Morsi, who was overthrown in a military coup on 3 July, with “espionage” and “collaborating” with the Palestinian resistance organization Hamas.
As the Los Angeles Times reported, “the charges stem from a prison escape by Morsi and other political prisoners, including members of the [Muslim] Brotherhood, during the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak” in January-February 2011.
“The accusations have been discussed in judiciary circles for months and have recently gained traction as the army seeks to impose order, marginalize the [Muslim] Brotherhood and move beyond more than two years of unrest,” the Los Angeles Times said.
Lurid claims that Hamas has assisted Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood have been disseminated by the Egyptian media, along with incitement against Palestinians, leading to a climate of fear for Palestinians in Egypt.
The rumors have been used to justify Egypt imposing travel restrictions on Palestinians, tightening the siege of Gaza as well as a renewed campaign to destroy tunnels that are lifeline for the Palestinian population there.
Hamas has consistently denied the accusations. But is there any basis to them?

Egypt’s Interior Ministry, not Hamas, opened the prisons

On Newshour at 20:00 GMT on 26 July, the BBC World Service’s Owen Bennett-Jones interviewed Dr. Omar Ashour, Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics and Security Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, about whether Hamas really did collaborate in a jailbreak with Muhammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Electronic Intifada transcribed the interview as it was a rare, informed discussion, and an antidote to the wild rumors fed by Egyptian media. Bennett-Jones began by asking Ashour what he thought of the accusations:
.......
Omar Ashour: I think there was a possibility that Hamas was involved when they saw the collapse happening, when they saw that the ministry of interior is opening prisons.
They had some of their men in these prisons so they may have possibly just acted afterwards. Or you had some of the families – because the Egyptian border draws lines between tribes, so you have half of the tribe in Gaza and half of the tribe in Sinai.
So some of these guys from the Palestinian part – the Gaza part – had their relatives over there and went directly to try to help them out. And this happened among several families, clans and tribes in Egypt. It was not only the ones affiliated with Hamas.
So it could have happened like that, but the principal actor who opened the prisons and who opened the cells, and who got the order for doing so, was the Egyptian ministry of interior, was the minister of interior at the time Habib el-Adly. And that’s an official report. The interesting part is they never sent the 100-pages to the public…"