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| Africa: North |
| More on Sheikh al-Said's release |
| 2005-04-10 |
| Egypt's Supreme Military Court released on Wednesday a top member of the 94 Islamists charged with plotting to assassinate top officials and attempting to smuggle weapons to the Palestinian group, Hamas. Sheikh Fawzi Al-Said, a prominent mosque preacher at the eastern Cairo suburb of Nasr City, was a member of a controversial group called Al-Waad, or the Promise, which was charged with illegally collecting money to send to Palestinians in support of their 4 1/2 year-long uprising, and also to Chechens fighting Russian forces in 2001. The Al-Waad case defendants, who include three foreign nationals from the former Soviet republic of Dagestan and three Egyptians who hold dual nationalities, were also accused of providing military trainings to people in Chechnya and Azerbaijan. After the Sept.11 attacks, however, the charges against Al-Said and other members expanded dramatically to include more serious charges of seeking to topple the government and assassinate top government officials, and the group was referred to a military trial. President Hosni Mubarak started referring suspected militants to military courts in 1992 in an attempt to deter violence. Defendants cannot appeal verdicts without the president's consent. Al-Said's lawyer, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said his client was expected to be released a couple of years ago as he had no connection with any militant group. "The court proved his innocence as he had no ties with extremist groups and did not plan to topple any regime," said the lawyers. "Even the funds he was raising were for humanitarian reasons to help people in Palestinian not the militants," he added, pointing out that Al-Said should have been freed in September 2002 when the court acquitted him. Meanwhile, a local human rights NGO said it filed a lawsuit against the Egyptian government for subjecting Al-Waad members to torture in order to extract confessions regarding their activities and those of other defendants. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |