18 - 24 April 2002
Issue No.582
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 18 - 24 April 2002 Issue No.582 |
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Incommunicado
Despite serving a life-term in a US prison, the blind Egyptian cleric, Omar Abdel-Rahman -- the mentor of Egypt's clandestine Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya's (The Islamic Group) -- was allegedly continuing to lead his radical group from his United States prison cell until not long ago.
On 9 April, US Attorney General John Ashcroft charged Abdel-Rahman's American lawyer and his translator with helping their client direct terrorist activities from his cell by channelling messages between him and his followers around the world.
The 63-year-old man was among 10 people convicted in New York in 1995 of involvement in the conspiracy to blow up the World Trade Center and other New York landmarks.
The current indictment accuses the four defendants of passing on messages between the Egyptian-based Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya and Abdel-Rahman that facilitated contact and allowed Abdel-Rahman to continue his activities as the organisation's leader from his prison cell. Abdel-Rahman's American lawyer, Lynne Stewart, and his translator, Mohamed Yousri, are also charged with conducting unlawful communications with him during prison visits and telephone calls.
Another of those indicted is Yasser El- Serri, the former head of the London-based Islamic Observatory Centre who is currently in custody in Britain. The 39-year-old Egyptian militant was arrested shortly after the 11 September attacks last year, and was charged with complicity in the murder of Afghan opposition commander Ahmed Shah Massoud on 9 September. He has also been accused of providing support for the banned Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya, procuring funds for terrorist purposes and publishing material likely to incite racial hatred.
El-Serri was further accused of facilitating communication between group members and financing their activities in association with another person. This man, who has been identified as Ahmed Abdel-Sattar, 42, was a New York postal worker that was described as a "surrogate" for Abdel-Rahman.
While announcing the indictments, Ashcroft described the Gama'a as a global terrorist organisation which has forged alliances with, among others, the Al-Qa'eda network that Washington accuses of carrying out the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington.
The indictment charges that the defendants violated "special administrative measures" restricting the blind cleric's communications with the outside world. "Abdel-Rahman used communications with Stewart, translated by Yousri, to pass on to and receive messages from Abdel- Sattar, El-Sirri and other Islamic Group members," Ashcroft said.
In 1997, special rules were imposed on Abdel- Rahman, banning him from passing or receiving written or recorded communications from other inmates, prison guards or people outside the prison. These restrictions were later tightened further to prohibit him from communicating with members of the media, either in person or through his lawyers. The indictment charges that Stewart and Yousri "repeatedly" and "wilfully" violated these orders, in order to maintain Abdel-Rahman's influence over the group's terrorist activities.
On 14 June 2000, Abdel-Rahman was quoted by Stewart as saying, "I am withdrawing my support of the cease-fire initiative, for it is clear that the government is still pursuing its old ways," thus retracting his backing for the unilateral truce that was declared by the Al-Gama'a leaders who are jailed near Cairo. Expatriate leaders later embraced the truce after the November 1997 Luxor massacre that left 58 tourists and four Egyptians dead.
After the Al-Gama'a claimed responsibility for the Luxor massacre, the group's image was tarnished both inside and outside Egypt. Millions of average Egyptians, especially in Luxor, were hard hit by the attack's aftermath. President Hosni Mubarak and other top officials have repeatedly complained that militants are abusing the freedom they enjoy in European countries to plot terrorist attacks and raise funds for their followers at home. Following the 1997 assault, foreign countries, including some European states who had previously blamed the continued violence on the government's violation of human rights, began to cooperate with Cairo and show increased understanding for the government line.
The indictment accuses all four defendants of handling messages relating to the Islamic group's activities, which are mostly aimed at bringing about its stated aim of overthrowing Egypt's secular government and establishing an Islamic government that is in line with the group's radical interpretation of Shari'a (Islamic law).
Abdel-Rahman behind bars in Egypt in 1989
Further, prosecutors said that Stewart tried to fool prison guards by inserting extraneous comments in English into Arabic conversations that were conducted between Abdel-Rahman and his translator.
As for Abdel-Sattar and El-Serri, they are accused of relaying a fatwa (religious ruling) from their mentor that urges Muslims everywhere "to fight the Jews and to kill them wherever they are." Both were also charged with soliciting violent crimes.
Prosecutors said that the Justice Department in the future will monitor all communications between Abdel-Rahman and his lawyers, the first use of an anti-terrorism tactic permitted under the Patriot Act that was passed following the 11 September attacks.
Osama Rushdi, a leading figure of the group, issued a statement from his exile in Holland, denouncing the charges and terming them a "pretext" for further US violation of human rights. He claimed that such accusations are only aimed at "terrorising" legal as well as human rights organisations from providing legal assistance for defendants in similar cases. "The indictment is part of the hysterical reaction that affected the US administration in the wake of the 11 September attacks. They are also paving the way for the formation of the military tribunals to try those detained at Camp X-ray at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba," he said.
The US had detained suspects from the US-led war on Afghanistan, notably members of prime terror suspect Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qa'eda network and the country's deposed Taliban militia. Bin Laden, whose whereabouts remain unknown, has been accused of masterminding the 11 September attack and declared America's most wanted man. His followers are being pursued worldwide by the US and its allies.
Released on a $500,000 bail, Stewart was quoted as saying that she hoped the indictment becomes a "touchstone case, something that points out the limits that government can go to in prosecuting people they don't like."
The 62-year-old attorney represented Abdel- Rahman in 1995 when he was convicted of seditious conspiracy. She wept when a jury found he conspired to assassinate President Mubarak and that he and nine others sought to blow up the United Nations, a federal building, and two tunnels and a bridge that link New Jersey to Manhattan.
All four defendants were charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to Al-Gama'a.
The diabetic cleric who also suffers a heart condition and asthma, has been moved from the Federal Medical Center in Minnesota to an undisclosed location. According to the indictment, Stewart plotted with Abdel-Sattar to mislead the public about Abdel-Rahman's health problems. They allegedly agreed that Abdel-Sattar should claim prison officials were denying him treatment for diabetes when he was, in fact, refusing medical care. Statements made by Abdel-Rahman's family confirmed that his health condition deteriorated drastically and that he was not given adequate medical care.
If convicted, each defendant could face prison terms ranging from five to 20 years. All defendants pleaded not guilty.
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