A CAIRO military court on Tuesday sentenced Islamist militant Ahmed Hussein Egeiza, 41, to 25 years in prison after he was found guilty of belonging to and leading an illegal group that allegedly works against the constitution with the aim of undermining the state, reports Jailan Halawi. Egeiza, deported three years ago from Sweden, was sentenced to 25 years in absentia in 1999, also by a military court, in a case dubbed as the "Returnees from Albania". In a shock decision at the beginning of April, President Hosni Mubarak overturned the 1999 sentence and ordered a retrial. The retrial returned the same verdict and sentence. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly Egeiza's lawyer Hafez Abu Seada described Tuesday's ruling as "odd" and "politically flawed". Abu Seada explains that the court found Egeiza guilty based on the testimony of Essam Abdel-Tawab, who was also tried and sentenced in 1999 in the "Returnees" case. Worth noting, continued Abu Seada, is that Abdel-Tawab was the only defendant who testified against Egeiza while other defendants testified that he [Egeiza] had nothing to do with any of the group's armed operations. The ruling, Abu Seada believes is "politically flawed" because Egeiza had since 1993 distanced himself from Jihad, the banned Islamist group, following a dispute with its leader Ayman El- Zawahri. "This is a man who declared he renounces violence. The ruling means he is being punished for an ideology he has renounced, even when it did not include involvement in violence," Abu Seada said. The ruling according to Abu Seada indicates a "clear message" that the state has not changed its strategy with regard to Islamists. Further, Abu Seada noted that since Amnesty International had filed a suit against the Egyptian and Swedish governments before the European Court of Human Rights (which is still reviewing the case), "today's ruling places Sweden in a rather embarrassing situation [with regard to] its human rights obligations." Egeiza, alleged leader of the underground Vanguards of Conquest, an offshoot of Jihad which is also banned, was on a list of 14 "most wanted" expatriates issued in December 1997 following the Luxor massacre, which left 58 foreigners and four Egyptians dead. Egeiza's only chance now according to Abu Seada is the pending presidential decision whether to ratify the ruling or not.
