Clampdown continues

In a prelude to what promise to be major military trials, President Hosni Mubarak has referred 253 suspected militants, in two separate cases, to military prosecutors. Jailan Halawi reports
On 13 October, President Hosni Mubarak issued a decree referring 83 suspected terrorists to military prosecutors to face charges of plotting to destabilise the nation and planning terrorist attacks against strategic targets.
The suspects were said not to belong to a specific militant group, but were described as factions influenced by the teachings of clandestine militant groups, such as Al-Gama'a al-Islamiya, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian Jihad and the Vanguards of Conquest (an offshoot of Jihad). Security officials gave the suspects the name Al-Wa'ad (the promise).
The suspects face charges of joining an underground organisation, aiming to overthrow the government regime by force, illegal possession of weapons, ammunition and explosives for use in terrorist operations, and forging official documents.
Members of the group were arrested in May and held in custody for interrogation by state security prosecutors. They were later referred to military prosecutors for additional questioning.
Some were said to have received paramilitary training in Afghanistan and planned to carry out assassination attempts against key Egyptian figures and to blow up strategic targets.
Those arrested were of various nationalities. They include an American of Egyptian origin, Mohamed Seif; a German, Mohamed Hassan Ibrahim El- Wardani; a Dutchman, Hisham Mahmoud Mohamed Diab; a Yemeni, Mohamed Rabeh Salim; five Daghestani nationals receiving education at Al- Azhar; and two brothers from the town of Rafah, on the border with Israel.
According to investigators, leading suspect Mohamed Saleh Warda, an Egyptian, propagated his ideology, based on the literature of clandestine groups, among students and others. He took ideas from books such as Mithaq Al-Amal Al-Islami (Charter of Islamic Action), which is authored by leaders of various militant groups, and Al-Umda Fi I'dad Al-Udda (the Supreme Guide for Being Prepared), authored by Ayman El-Zawahri, leader of Egyptian Jihad. Warda particularly stressed the need to act to uproot vice. Allegedly, Warda was able to win over a large number of youths and held several meetings at mosques and houses indoctrinating them with the group's ideology.
It is claimed that the leaders of Al-Wa'ad were closely connected to two mosque preachers who used to give sermons at a Cairo mosque. According to investigators, the preachers also provided funds to the group from donations collected in mosques. The two preachers were arrested and later released.
The recruits were told of the necessity of jihad to achieve their goals. Some were said to have travelled to Afghanistan or the Balkans where they took part in combat operations or received paramilitary training before returning to Egypt and carrying out acts of terror.
Members of the group were also said to have been secretive. They reportedly took a number of precautionary measures for their anonymity that included breaking all links with more active or better- known militant groups.
The expertise of foreign group members living in Egypt was also called upon. These foreigners include Omar Gayef Rasoul from Daghestan. Rasoul and two others from Daghestan as well as a Yemeni are believed to be experts in manufacturing explosives.
Investigators searched the houses of suspects who lived in Cairo, Suez, Alexandria, Giza and Qalyubia governorates. They reportedly found explosives' ingredients, chemical compounds as well as ammunition.
According to investigators, the suspects tried to support the Intifada in Palestine and travelled to Chechnya to assist the mujahidin (fighters) there.
The group's alleged activities include: paying for Chechnyan fighters to receive para-military training in Afghanistan, attempting to acquire large amounts of weapons and explosives for use in their planned attacks and training recruits to prepare explosives.
Other alleged activities include: planning terrorist attacks against strategic targets; plotting to assassinate public figures; hiding explosives and their ingredients in locations owned by group members; and propagating militant ideas.
It is also said that two of the suspects travelled to the US 18 months ago and received civil aviation training for six months. Upon returning to Egypt, they sought jobs with civil and cargo airliners.
An Egyptian publication described the group last week as a sleeper cell of Osama Bin Laden's Al- Qa'ida organisation. Mubarak denied this allegation.
According to Montasser El-Zayyat, the suspects' lawyer, none of his clients was questioned about his alleged ties, or accused of having connections,with Al-Qa'ida or Egyptian Jihad.
El-Zayyat said that the majority of those arrested embrace a reactionary ideology, but do not belong to one specific organisation. They were arrested in different cities.
Lawyer Mamdouh Ismail, who represents some of the suspects, said the men denied having any links with militant Islamist groups. He also denied that the suspects had confessed to planning any bombing operations.
In another development, President Mubarak on Monday referred 170 members of Al-Gama'a Al- Islamiya to military prosecutors to face charges of undertaking acts of violence some years ago.
The detainees are suspected of involvement in terrorist operations executed between 1994 and 1998, in which 250 policemen, foreign tourists and Copts were killed. They were also accused of attacking Coptic churches in southern Egypt, committing bank and jewellery shop robberies and attacking trains.
According to officials, some of the suspects were investigated in connection with an armed attack in 1996 outside the Europa Hotel near the Pyramids, that killed 18 Greek tourists and wounded 14 others.
According to Egyptian law, sentences handed down by military courts cannot be appealed and are subject only to ratification by the president. The defendants are entitled only to submit a petition to the president for clemency or retrial. All such petitions have been refused in cases related to religious extremist violence.
Military trials take place in accordance with the Emergency Law, in force since the 1981 assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat by Jihad militants.
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