The radical Islamist group Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya has called for the release from detention of more of its members, raising questions about the repercussions of its demands, writes Doaa El-Bey The radical Islamist group Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya said in a statement last week that it would submit an official request to President Mohamed Morsi asking for the release of three more of its members sentenced to life imprisonment and held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa after taking part in the failed assassination attempt on former president Hosni Mubarak in the city in 1995. However, any release of further prisoners belonging to Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya or other radical Islamist groups could spark more controversy and raise questions about how such decisions are made. Tarek Al-Zomor, a senior leader in Al-Gamaa, was quoted late last week saying that the group would submit a request to Morsi calling for the release of the three detainees or their return to finish their sentences in Egypt. The request immediately provoked reactions from across the political spectrum with Ali Al-Fil, a representative of the Free Front for Peaceful Change, a group of youth activists, asking "why should we apply selective justice? If we want popular reconciliation, it should be with all groups, not with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamist groups only." "If we want to focus on the issue of releasing prisoners inside and outside the country, then we should first focus on releasing prisoners held in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Libya," Al-Fil continued. Three Egyptian prisoners in Iraq currently face the death sentence. "Why should we honour the name of the late president Anwar Al-Sadat in the morning of 6 October and then invite his assassins to a celebration in the evening? This is a clear contradiction," Al-Fil added in a phone interview with Al-Ahram Weekly. Ali, a lawyer for Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, submitted a request to the Foreign Ministry last week requesting it to ask the Ethiopian authorities to release the three group members detained in Addis Ababa. The request asked for the Egyptian authorities to secure the release of Abdel-Karim Al-Nadi, Al-Arabi Sedki and Safwat Attia, since "their presence in Ethiopian prisons is unacceptable in post-revolutionary Egypt." Al-Gamaa also asked the ministry to arrange a visit by group members to the detainees in Addis Ababa, and it plans to submit a similar request to the National Council for Human Rights in Cairo. The Foreign Ministry did not release any comment on the issue. According to Nageh , a senior member of Al-Gamaa, the men should be released because they have been in prison for more than 17 years. "The Ethiopian authorities have nevertheless treated them better than their counterparts in Egyptian prisoners," he told the Weekly. The men were originally sentenced to death, said, but the Ethiopian authorities had not carried out the sentences. He welcomed the earlier release of other members of the group. The issue was brought up during a recent visit by Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya members to Sudan, during which the Sudanese authorities said they would approach the Ethiopian authorities to secure the release of the three prisoners if the Egyptian Foreign Ministry submitted an official request for their release. Three months ago, President Morsi decided to release more than 500 political prisoners from jails in Egypt, including 25 from Islamic Jihad and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya who had been accused of trying to kill top officials from the previous Mubarak regime. Morsi also formed a committee to follow up on detainees still held in military prisons in Egypt. It is estimated that there are more than 2,000 civilians undergoing military sentences in the country. The 1990s saw the rise of militant political Islam in Egypt, with group members carrying out armed attacks in the country. The best-known of these was the Luxor massacre in 1997, when tens of tourists were killed at the hands of Al-Gamaa. Morsi's decree was met with approval from the Islamist groups, though many were sceptical regarding the reasons behind the release. For his part, Ali called on the Interior Ministry to pay up to LE400 million in compensation to the released prisoners at a rate of between LE10,000 and 20,000 each. After the 25 January Revolution there were calls for a new start, Al-Fil said. "We need to avoid double standards. The reconciliation we need should be with all the groups in society, not with just a certain group or party." "We are not against the release of prisoners from one group as long as it is accompanied by a similar policy with all the other groups," he said in a statement made just a few hours before Morsi granted pardon to all political detainees in the wake of the 25 January Revolution.
