CAIRO: Mohamed al-Zawahiri, the brother of al-Qaeda's leader Ayman, was acquitted of terrorism charges by an Egypt court on Monday, which also overturned a 14-year-old death penalty sentence against him, state television reported. Al-Zawahiri, the brother, was part of a group convicted in 1998 for planning attacks and belonging to an extremist group. He is the brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took over the top position in al-Qaeda after last year's assassination of Osama bin Laden by American forces in Pakistan. Mohamed al-Islamboli – whose brother, Khalid, was behind the assassination of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981 – was also acquitted of charges related to the same case. Al-Zawahiri had been held in detention in Egypt, but al-Islamboli has lived in exile for more than 20 years, only arriving in Egypt following the ouster of former president Hosn Mubarak last year. During Mubarak's rule, it was not uncommon for Islamists to be found guilty of collecting money for Islamist groups and “funding terrorism.” ** with dpa BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/nEpn6 Tags: Al Qaeda, Egypt, featured, Sentence, Terrorism, Zawahiri Section: Egypt, Latest News
