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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 February 1999 Issue No. 417 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 February 1999 Issue No. 417
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Investigators
By Shaden Shehab
on the witness standSix state security investigators, testifying as witnesses, have recounted to the Supreme Military Court how they gathered information about suspected members of the underground Jihad group and succeeded in arresting 44 of them. They are standing trial on charges of joining an illegal group bent on using terror to overthrow the government, planning the assassination of top officials and security officers and possessing forged documents. Sixty-three other defendants, who live abroad, are being tried in absentia on the same charges.
Topping the list of defendants standing trial in absentia are Jihad leader Ayman El-Zawahri, his brother Mohamed and several other militants believed to be living in Afghanistan and in European countries.
El-Zawahri is known to be a close associate of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, accused by the United States of masterminding the bombing of its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania last August.
The witnesses testified before the court for 10 hours on Saturday and for an additional seven hours on Monday.
The first witness, whose name cannot be published, told the court that he gathered information about the defendants from "secret sources directly or indirectly related" to the Jihad group. After launching an investigation, he found that the suspects have links with Jihad members living in Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Britain, Austria, Azerbaijan, Albania, the United States, Germany and Jordan.
The witness said Ayman El-Zawahri was the leader of Jihad and that he, together with other defendants, acted to revive the group's domestic activity after many Jihad members had been sentenced to jail or death.
Explaining the role of each defendant, the witness said some were paid to monitor top security officials while others planned terrorist operations to threaten the nation's economic and social stability. He also said the defendants were in possession of forged documents, including passports, identity cards, birth certificates and papers exempting them from military service.
The second witness said he received defendant Ahmed El-Naggar at Cairo Airport upon his extradition from Albania. As they were being driven to security headquarters, the witness said he was told by El-Naggar that he is a leading member of Jihad, led by El-Zawahri, and that the group seeks to overthrow the government. He added that El-Naggar was not pressured to make this confession. From behind prison bars, El-Naggar had told reporters that he made the confession after being tortured.
El-Naggar was sentenced to death in absentia in October 1997 for plotting an attack on tourists. He and 11 other defendants were extradited to Egypt by Albania. One defendant was extradited by Bulgaria and another by Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed Ismail Othman, who was among those handed over by Albania, had also been sentenced to death in absentia in 1994 for ordering an assassination attempt on then Prime Minister Atef Sidki.
The other four witnesses told the court how the defendants were arrested. One witness quoted Shawki Salama, who was extradited by Albania, as saying that bin Laden paid for his wife's hospital care in Saudi Arabia and frequently covered the medical bills of Islamist militants.
Another witness testified that defendant Mamdouh Ali Ziada received instructions from El-Naggar and El-Zawahri to set up a Jihad group in the Giza village of Nahia and to buy weapons to be used in anti-government attacks. "Ziada said they sent him LE10,000 as a first instalment," the witness testified.
Family members, who filled the courtroom, talked with the defendants, who were kept in an iron cage, during the court recess. Most of the women were heavily veiled, with only their eyes visible.
The court was scheduled to resume hearings today.
