CAIRO: Three Britons left an Egyptian jail on Tuesday after serving almost four years of their five-year sentences for spreading propaganda for an Islamist group, the mother of one of Britons said. Officials said they would be deported to Britain within 24 hours. The Britons Reza Pankhurst, Maajid Nawaz and Ian Nisbett, were among a group of 26 men jailed for between one and five years for spreading the propaganda of the Hizbut Tahrir Al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party). Zara Pankhurst, the mother of Reza, told Reuters she and her husband went to the prison on Tuesday morning and found them gone. An Egyptian security official said they had been transferred to the British embassy for deportation. British diplomats were not available to comment. On Monday an Egyptian official, who asked not to be named, said the Interior Ministry had agreed to set them free because they had served three quarters of their sentence. Including their time awaiting trial, they have been in jail since early 2002. At the time of the trial, Hizbut Tahrir complained the authorities had tortured the defendants to extract confessions. The Egyptian authorities say they investigate all complaints of torture in detention. The human rights group Amnesty International said the trial, held in a state security court, was unfair and the men were convicted merely for expressing their views peacefully. The charges against them included spreading propaganda for a group which called for the overthrow of the government. In the same case, eight Egyptians and a Palestinian were sentenced to five years in prison, seven Egyptians to three years and a further seven Egyptians to one year. Agencies
