The third encounter VIII- Sayyed Kotb speaks THE Egyptian Gazette of April 13, 1966 carried a lengthy report on Sayyed Kotb's own pleading. Headlined: Kotb tells court about Ikhwan's secret organisation had contact while in jail. The report said: Sayyed Kotb Ibrahim, accused chief of the underground organisation if the banned Muslim Brotherhood, testified yesterday that the numerical strength of the organisation which he led before arrests was between 200 and 300. Giving evidence in the First Chamber of the State Security Court yesterday, the principal defendant said that 70 members were the 'first line' of the organisation and received military training in commando operations. Kotb told the court that the organisation members were getting ready, before their arrests, to receive a shipment of arms from Saudi Arabia via the Sudan. Sabotage work allegedly planned by the organisation was no more than 'suggestions', he said. Sayyed Kotb told the court he knew of the existence of an underground organisation of the banned party in 1963 when he was through his sister, Hamida Kotb, who told him that the organisation's members were studying his book and waiting for his instructions. Sayyed Kotb was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in 1954 but was released in May 1964 on grounds of poor health. After he came out of prison, the accused said, he met in Cairo and later in Ras el-Bar with Abdul Fattah Ismail and other accused. Their conversations, he added, were intellectual at first. They used to discuss his books, but they later told him they were 'not alone' but were backed by groups of young people who form a secret commando organisation aimed at taking vengeance against the Government for what happened to the Brotherhood in 1954. Kotb also told the court that the secret organisation dated back four or five years before his release from prison in 1964. At later, meetings with the leadership of the organisation, the accused said, he pointed out to them that their objective was 'erroneous and petty' and that its achievement would fall short of its possible bad effects. He tried to dissuade them from working against the Government and to convince them to expand their objective 'in the creation of a generation of Muslim young men who are highly conscious of the circumstances and policy of the community'. He said that he meant those young men to be the nucleus of the eventual creation of the Muslim community, and told his colleagues that chances would only be possible through the intervention of an armed base which would set up the Islamic community. This community would not be created at the top, but will have to begin at the base and then proceed to include the top, he said. Kotb told the court that after several meetings with other accused, they assured him that they were quite satisfied with his views in order to win over other formations of the Muslim Brotherhood which were pursuing earlier objective of avenging themselves against the Government. [email protected]
