An Egyptian court on Wednesday postponed its decision to hand a death sentence down on alleged former commander of banned Islamist group Gamaa Islamiya's military wing Abdul Hamid Othman, otherwise known as Abu Aqrab. A judicial source told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the court had decided to postpone the verdict until 21 December. Othman was previously tried in absentia and was sentenced to death twice for commanding a Gamaa Islamiya terrorist cell that attacked foreign tourists, state interests and police officers in the 1980s and 1990s. Othman was charged with carrying out eight separate terrorist operations in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Assiut, including the murder of Assiut's Assistant Director of Security in 1993. Police arrested Othman in 2008 after he was found in the southern city of Minya where he had been hiding for nearly 15 years. The current trial of Othman before the Supreme State Security Court began in February of this year. In June, the court referred the case to Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, who must approve all capital sentences. The mufti rarely overrules death sentences issued by the court. During an earlier court hearing, the defense team maintained its client's innocence, arguing that Abu Aqrab did "not fit the qualifications of a military commander since he suffers from poor health.” Othman suffers from severe visual and hearing impairments and is regarded as legally blind, which, his lawyers said, "would make it impossible for him to even aim a rifle." The case represents the first time for a Gamaa Islamiya leader to be tried in court since the group formally abandoned violence in the late 1990s and retracted its traditional claim that the Egyptian government constituted an "apostate" regime.
