Egyptian police release other 1000 members of the Islamic group, one leader
Egypt, Politics, 9/30/2003

The Egyptian authorities released Mamdouh Ali Youssef, member of the Shoura council for the Islamic group and one of the most important former figures in al-Fayyoum province.

Meantime, a source in the Egyptian police said yesterday that the authorities released some 1,000 prisoners of the group within the two past days. The source stressed "the release of some 1,000 persons of the Islamic group after they declared their redemption and giving up extremist views." The source explained that releasing those persons comes just one week before the 30th anniversary of October, 1973 war.

On Sunday, the Egyptian authorities released the chairman of the group's Shoura council Karam Zuhfi, after 22 years he had spent in prison. The Egyptian minister of the Interior Habib al-Adeli announced by the beginning of this month, September, that 1000 members of the Islamic groups were released during the three past years.

Zuhdi carried out a revision operation for the thinking of the group inside the prison in order to give up violence and weapons and rejecting the armed conflict with the state. He was one of those who advocated the initiative to halt violence in 1997, five years after the group started their armed operations.

Recently Zuhdi made press statements in which he apologized for the operations adopted by the Islamic groups, expressing readiness to give compensation for the victims.

In his statements, Zuhdi criticized the assassination of the former Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat. He said that his group should not have done that operation. He stressed that he considers al-Sadat and all those who were killed of the group members or police members in the clashes as "martyrs of the fighting of sedition." Releasing Zuhdi, who is described now as the Amir of the Islamic group coincided with the declaration of a series of political reforms in the country by President Hosni Mubarak including encouraging of democratic dialogue and abrogating the decisions of the military rule issued according to the emergency laws.

The Islamic group is considered one of the most remarkable armed movement in Egypt, together with al-Jihad organization led by Ayman al-Zawaheri who is considered the right hand for Osama Bin Laden, leader of al-Qaida organization. The Islamic group started a wave of violence started by the beginning of the 1990s and resulted in killing 1300 persons in Egypt.

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