Issue No. 591
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20 - 26 June 2002 Issue No. 591 Home news |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Enigmatic extradition
Over two decades after his conviction in absentia for involvement in the assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat, an Islamist militant has been handed over to Egypt by the US. Jailan Halawi looks into the case
As part of increasing Egyptian-American cooperation in the war on terrorism, 41-year-old Nabil Suleiman was handed over to Egyptian authorities on 12 June.
According to security officials who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly on the customary condition of anonymity, Suleiman, who was sentenced in absentia in 1984 to five years in prison for his involvement in the assassination of the late President Anwar El-Sadat's in 1981, was a member of the underground Jihad group. The security official indicated that Suleiman fled from Egypt to Saudi Arabia soon after the assassination, moving to the US in 1990. The type of visa Suleiman may have used to gain entry to the US is unclear.
According to US Ambassador to Egypt David Welch, Suleiman's extradition to Egypt "follows the conclusion of appropriate legal proceedings concerning Suleiman, who was removed for being in the United States illegally".
Welch said that the extradition demonstrates "the American commitment to working closely with our friends and allies to eradicate this scourge [of terrorism]".
Taken into custody by Egyptian authorities upon his arrival at Cairo Airport, Suleiman will most likely get a retrial for the charges he faced in the '80s -- the routine procedure for those sentenced in absentia, and later arrested.
According to Suleiman's lawyer Montasser El- Zayyat, who routinely represents members of Islamist groups before the courts, his client had a proper visa when he entered the United States. El-Zayyat said that Suleiman's arrest and extradition were part of the continuous pursuit of Islamists worldwide, especially in the US. "For seven years [in the US]," El-Zayyat said, "Suleiman worked as a taxi driver, a job that requires a driver's license, a work permit and of course an authentic visa."
It is the precise nature of Suleiman's visa status that still remains unclear. In 1993 he married an American citizen with whom he had two children. American laws would ordinarily entitle Suleiman to a resident's permit by virtue of his marriage to an American national, but US Embassy spokesman Philip Frayne told the Weekly that when the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) reviewed Suleiman's case, they found that "his claimed marriage to a US citizen was not bona fide."
The INS arrested him in 1997, and a US court later decided that he was illegally residing in the US. Frayne explained that the INS discovered that Suleiman was already married to an Egyptian, making his marriage to a second wife in the US illegal.
Following his arrest, Suleiman applied for political asylum in the US, but that request was denied. According to official US sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, the asylum request was denied because the court discovered that Suleiman had provided false information about his criminal record.
Consequently, an extradition order was issued, but the INS could not deport him because of legal issues prohibiting the agency from deporting aliens who are likely to be tortured upon their return to their homeland.
"It was only this year that we got assurances from the Egyptian government that Suleiman would not be tortured, which paved the way for his return," Frayne said.
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