Egyptian Lawyer Arrested for Coordinating with al-Qaeda Leadership in Yemen
Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) is charging Egyptian attorney Mamdouh Ismail of heading what is known as the “Egyptian Project” of Al-Qaeda.
The SSSP claims Ismail, an attorney working with Islamic movements in Egypt, was the connecting link between Al-Qaeda leadership and the organization’s leaders in Yemen, Algeria and Iraq. The charge sheet also said Ismail transferred messages from Muhammad Khalil Al-Hakaima, an Al-Qaeda leader in Egypt, who escaped the country, to his associates who remained behind.
“Project Egypt” perpetrated a number of terror attacks inside Egypt, the SSSP claimed. Ismail, for his part, has rejected all the accusations. He said he signed an initiative in 1997, which called to cease violence in Egypt.
Ismail has served as defense attorney to many Islamists who have been charged with terrorism. He also tried – unsuccessfully – to establish a political party called “The Party of Islamic Law.”
Update: Al-Qaeda denies:
Egyptian attorney and Islamic activist Mamedouh Isma’il was arrested recently in Egypt on suspicion of “funding Al-Qaeda in Egypt, Yemen, and Algeria, on the instructions of bin Laden’s deputy Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri.”
In a communiqué to the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Al-Qaeda member Muhammad Khalil Hassan Al-Hakima stated that Al-Zawahiri had not used any modern means of communication – such as a cell or land phone line, email, or the Internet – for the past four years. He also denied any connection with Isma’il, and said, “When Al-Qaeda decides to act, it does not turn to known Islamic [elements] or to people who have been arrested in the past in Egypt or outside it. This is the ABC of our operations.”
Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, April 5, 2007
Al-Qaeda doesn’t work through people who have been arrested or are known, really?
