Amnesty calls for the release of Saad Eddine Ibrahim; Egypt releases scores of Muslim brothers activists
Egypt, Politics, 12/3/2002

An Egyptian judicial source said yesterday that the attorney general on Sunday ordered the release of scores of the activists of the banned Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brothers) groups after they were jailed for several periods of time.

Meantime, Amnesty International called for immediate and unconditional release for the Egyptian- American activist in human rights, Saaed eddine Ibrahim. This call was in the wake of the court of cassation expected decision to accept or appeal for the sentence to jail Ibrahim for seven years.

The judicial source said that the "release covered 19 persons from ( the Muslim brothers group) including one member of al-Irshad ( Guidance ) office, which is the highest leading authority, Rashad al-Bayoumi ,who is a teacher at the faculty of Geology at Cairo university. Those persons were arrested on September 19, 2001.

The source said that the attorney decided also to release six members of the Muslim brothers who were detained earlier under the charges of having meetings without a prior licensing. The source indicated that the attorney general in Suhaj ( Upper Egypt) decided the release of 17 activists of the Muslim brothers arrested in various times.

The release of members of the Muslim brother group came just days following the elections of the advisor Mamoun al-Huseibi as a general Guide for the group which has been banned in Egypt since 1954, but have the right to have two candidates on the independent list and has 17 seats at the People's Assembly ( parliament) which includes 454 parliamentarians.

Meantime, Amnesty International, in a statement, considered the accusations according to which Ibrahim was sentenced in July this year as a pretext for punishing him because he criticized the policies of the Egyptian government.

Amnesty called for immediate and unconditional release of Ibrahim, considering that the Egyptian government intends to target Ibrahim and people like him in order to "silence the human rights movement in Egypt." The organization, which has its headquarters in London, also called on the Egyptian authorities to end trying to muzzle activists of non governmental organizations.

Previous Stories:
  Mubarak calls on Israel to resume negotiations; An envoy for Mistnag meets with Maher   (12/2/2002)
  Egypt: the American ambassador exposed to a vague incident   (12/2/2002)
  Arab intellectuals, politicians call on Mubarak to release Ibrahim   (9/27/2002)
  Egypt: some 35 Muslim brothers members released   (8/21/2002)
  Saad Ibrahim imprisonment halt further US aid, Egypt rejects pressure   (8/16/2002)
  Denunciations of Egyptian activists jail sentence, 16 Muslim brothers sentenced   (7/31/2002)
  Denunciations of Egyptian activists jail sentence, 16 Muslim brothers sentenced   (7/31/2002)
  Egypt extends custody for 24 Islamists, 101 Muslim brothers members   (7/25/2002)

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