Although Egypt doesn't have an extradition treaty with Uruguay, the South American country has turned over an alleged Islamist militant to Egyptian authorities following four years of legal wrangling. Jailan Halawi reports Uruguay has deported a suspected Egyptian Islamist militant, El-Said Hassan Mukhlis, to his home country four years after Cairo requested his extradition. Mukhlis's return to Egypt on 10 July follows a saga that began 29 January 1999 when he attempted to enter Uruguay from Brazil using a forged Malaysian passport. Mukhlis is wanted in Egypt for his alleged involvement in various terrorist activities and membership in the outlawed Al- Gama'a Al-Islamiya. Egyptian officials say Mukhlis trained at an Al-Qa'eda camp in Afghanistan, while the Uruguayan press reported that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) suspects him of having links with Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden. Some media reports have speculated that Mukhlis's training stint in Afghanistan was in preparation for the 1997 Luxor massacre in which 58 tourists and four Egyptians were killed. Islamist lawyer Montasser El- Zayyat told Al-Ahram Weekly that his client has never been involved in any violent attacks and that he was deported for questioning in relation to two other matters. The first concerns a 1994 charge against Mukhlis for attempting to revive the activities of the illegal Al- Gama'a Al-Islamiya in his home town of Port Said. The second relates to Mukhlis's alleged presence at a training camp in Afghanistan. Before his arrest Mukhlis resided for an unknown period with his wife and children in the Brazilian town of Chuy, located near the border with Uruguay, where he made a living selling electrical appliances. Uruguayan immigration authorities arrested him along with his family and a man accompanying them when they tried to enter the country, although all save Mukhlis were immediately released. A Montevideo court ordered Mukhlis remanded into custody for 45 days pending investigation because of information the Uruguayan police received from the CIA that three Egyptians carrying forged passports would attempt to cross the border between Brazil and Uruguay and that they were suspected of belonging to an illegal group. Shortly after Mukhlis was detained, the Interpol office in Egypt asked Uruguay to arrest and deport him. Egypt, which does not have an extradition treaty with Uruguay, followed suit shortly, submitting a request for Mukhlis's extradition on 12 March 1999, describing him as "a member of the illegal Al- Gama'a Al-Islamiya that acts to destabilise the democratic regime by terrorist methods, including the possession of firearms and explosives and plotting assassinations". In response, the Uruguayan court made numerous requests from the Egyptian authorities to support their bid. It asked for the text of the Egyptian law authorising the prosecutor-general to order an arrest, since in Uruguay that is the prerogative of the court. It asked whether Mukhlis had ever been tried or sentenced by an Egyptian court, as well as for the details of the charges against him and the penalties they carried in the event of a conviction. The Uruguayan court subsequently requested evidence of the allegations against Mukhlis and for assurances that he would be handed over to civilian authorities -- not a military court whose ruling cannot be appealed. In a similar regard, it requested guarantees that Mukhlis would not face either the death penalty or life imprisonment if found guilty. The case made its way through Uruguayan courts over a four-year period as Mukhlis's lawyers appealed each decision in favour of the extradition. The game was over, however, on 6 May when the Uruguayan Supreme Court approved Egypt's request. Another two months elapsed before Uruguay sent Mukhlis on his way after receiving a document from Egypt affirming that it agreed to the conditions of the deportation. Uruguay is only one of many countries that have made it more difficult for Islamist militants to use its land as a safe haven since 9/11. Countries like Canada, Bosnia and Sweden have all recently moved to extradite Egyptian Islamist militants to Egypt, and even Britain, long criticised by Egypt as a safe haven for Islamist militants, has taken steps to change its asylum laws.
