Britain gets tough

By Jailan Halawi

Six of the men are Egyptian Islamists believed to belong to the underground Jihad group, while the seventh is a Saudi national described as a key aide to Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden.

Jihad and Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya are Egypt's main armed militant groups. Jihad, which is led by Bin Laden ally Ayman El-Zawahri, was officially blamed for the 1981 assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat.

The arrested Egyptians include Adel Abdel-Meguid Abdel-Bari, who was sentenced to death in absentia last year for plotting to blow up Cairo's Khan Al-Khalili bazaar. Abdel-Bari was also named in the Egyptian government's "Call to Combat Terrorism" list, which was released last November after the massacre of 58 tourists by Islamist militants in Luxor. The list states that Abdel-Bari and 14 other Egyptian militants masterminded violent acts from abroad.

Abdel-Bari set up the International Office for the Defence of the Egyptian People in London in 1997, vowing to expose "the regime's aggression against the Egyptian people's beliefs, dignity, freedom and prosperity." Abdel-Bari, a lawyer, had left Egypt in the early 1990s after defending Islamist militants including, at one time, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Gama'a's spiritual leader who is in jail in the US for his role in the World Trade Center bombing in New York. Abdel-Bari was granted political asylum in Britain in 1993.

President Hosni Mubarak criticised Britain after the Luxor carnage, saying militant leaders living in Britain and Afghanistan were the planners and financiers of such attacks. Egypt has repeatedly requested that those leaders be handed over.

The arrested Saudi national, Khaled Al-Fawaz, described as Osama Bin Laden's key assistant, heads the Committee for Advice and Reform which seeks to oust the Saudi monarchy. Bin Laden, a millionaire currently holed up in Afghanistan, is accused by the US of masterminding the twin bombings of its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August.

The other Egyptians were identified as Ibrahim Eidrouss, Osama Ahmed Hassan, Sayed Ahmed Abdel-Maqsoud, Hani El-Sebai (who was tried and acquitted of being involved in Sadat's assassination) and Sayed Agami.

In a telephone interview with Al-Ahram Weekly from his London office, Sheikh Omar Bakri, spokesman of Al-Muhajiroun group, said: "The arrested Egyptians are political refugees who are not involved in terrorist activities." He added that Muslims in Britain condemn the "barbaric" acts of the British government against "innocent Muslims who, it is now apparent, were lulled and betrayed into believing they could seek sanctuary in Britain from their corrupt regimes."

Furthermore, said Bakri "it is clear the British government has adopted a harsh policy against the peaceful Muslim community, using fear, force and the methods of tyrannical regimes such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Syria, Iran and other Middle Eastern governments in exchange for future economic favours." Bakri denounced Britain as the "spearhead of blasphemy that seeks to overthrow Muslims and the Islamic caliphate."

Bakri said that before the new legislation, Britain was seen by Islamists as a "safe haven where they could speak out against oppression and corruption in Muslim countries, resulting from the implementation of man-made law."

He argued that Britain felt politically isolated because it was excluded from Middle East peace-making, which is monopolised by the US. "As a result, Britain felt it was necessary to embark on this wave of combating terrorism," he said.

Although no serious charges had been pressed against those arrested, Bakri said Muslims must be vigilant "so they are not used as scapegoats, as happened to Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, to boost Mr Tony Blair's strategic interests or divert attention away from the assertion that Britain is a haven for Muslim fundamentalists and extremists."

The arrests, he argued, were "a ransom for future economic favours," extracted after a recent visit to London by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdallah Bin Abdel-Aziz.

Bakri said he was confident Britain would not be able to prove any connection between those arrested and international terrorism, and described the arrests as "a political exercise in muscle-flexing."

Bakri insisted that five of those arrested were being investigated in connection with immigration issues. Abdel-Bari has been released on bail for allegedly possessing two small canisters of SC-Spray at his home and is due to appear in court on 16 October.

Al-Fawaz was released without charge but was re-arrested and is being interrogated at the request of the FBI. Bakri said it is likely that the FBI would request Al-Fawaz's extradition to the US, which would require a court order.

Several Middle Eastern countries and France have complained that militants made use of Britain's lax laws to shelter from their pursuers. Last month's legislation makes conspiring in Britain to commit terrorist crimes abroad a criminal offence.