Unconfirmed extraditions

By Khaled Dawoud

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry refused to deny or confirm the report. Islamist lawyer Montasser El-Zayyat, who previously defended El-Naggar in other cases before he fled the country in 1992, told Al-Ahram Weekly that he had filed a request with the attorney-general, inquiring about the whereabouts of his client. El-Zayyat added that he expected a response before the end of this week.

Any defendant sentenced in absentia by civil courts must stand a retrial upon his arrest. But those sentenced by military courts forego this right. El-Naggar is only entitled to submit a clemency request to the president's office responsible for ratifying sentences passed by military courts, security sources said. These requests are usually turned down.

The IOC is run by Yasser Serri, who is believed to be a member of Egypt's largest militant organisation, Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya. Similarly, he was sentenced to death in absentia by a military court in 1994 after he was convicted of plotting an assassination attempt against then Prime Minister Atef Sedki. Serri now tops the list of militants wanted by the Interior Ministry. Cairo has submitted several requests to Britain demanding his extradition, but London said that a final decision must be made first on his request for political asylum.

The IOC statement named the three other militants allegedly handed to Egypt as Maged Mustafa, 36, Mohamed Hoda, 39, and Mohamed Hassan Mahmoud, 32.

Albanian newspapers reported on 28 June that police had arrested the four Egyptians in the capital, Tirana, following a tip from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which is active in the Balkans due to the ongoing conflict in the former Republic of Yugoslavia.

Albanian police said they also seized weapons and forged documents in a house the four men had rented in the suburbs of Tirana. The four had arrived in Albania a few weeks before their arrest and were engaged in charitable activities, Albanian newspapers added.

"Albania conspired with NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organisation] in committing a terrible crime and handed over to Egypt a group of Islamists, including one sentenced to death in absentia. The group is being subjected to severe torture in Lazoughli [the headquarters of the state security department in downtown Cairo] since their arrival in Egypt," the IOC statement claimed. It also called upon human rights groups to intervene in order "to save the [four] from death".

After the Gama'a took responsibility for the brutal massacre of 58 tourists and four Egyptians in Luxor last November, Cairo launched a diplomatic offensive to demand the extradition of dozens of militants residing in Europe.

Although extradition requests were usually rejected in the past, several countries showed readiness to cooperate with Egypt if it provided solid evidence of the involvement of the wanted Islamists in terrorist activities.

If the IOC report proved true, this would be the first time that a militant sentenced to death had been handed over to Egypt. El-Naggar was one of three militants sentenced to death in a case known as the "Khan El-Khalili group". He allegedly planned with others to attack the famous tourist bazaar as part of the underground group's plan to destabilise the country and harm its economy.

Adel Abdel-Meguid, now a political refugee in Britain and a leading Jihad member, was also sentenced to death in absentia in the same case. The only militant condemned to death in his presence was Adel Bayoumi Sudani. Other militants involved in the case received jail terms.