Egypt calls defecting pilot an Islamist

CAIRO [MENL] -- Egypt, alarmed by the prospect that a defecting EgyptAir pilot might disclose details that would support a suicide crash of an airliner, has termed him an Islamist who wants to take revenge on the company.

Egyptian sources said the pilot, Hamdi Hanafi Taha, was found to have objected to the distribution of food aboard the airliner during the fast month of Ramadan. But the sources stressed to the London-based Al Hayat daily on Monday that the pilot did not belong to any Islamist group.

Islamic sources said Taha led a campaign to stop the serving of alcohol aboard EgyptAir flights in the 1980s. The sources said Taha was not arrested because he was found to have no connection with an Islamic group.

The sources said an investigation has been launched by Egyptian intelligence to determine what the 49-year-old pilot knows regarding the Oct. 31 crash off the coast of the United States. They said investigators believe the pilot is being motivated by revenge after he clashed several times with his superiors for various reasons.

After he defected, the pilot requested a meeting with U.S. investigators of the crash to tell them new information regarding the EgyptAir flight.

Taha's wife has said her husband had no connection to Gamil Batouti, the co-pilot that U.S. investigators believe downed EgyptAir Flight 990 in a suicide crash. She said her husband complained of negligence in the maintenance of EgyptAir's planes.

In a related development, a leader of Egypt's largest insurgency group has urged a ceasefire. Osma Ayoub Sidiq, leader of the Jihad group, said the insurgency is no longer in the interest of Muslims.

Instead, Sidiq has called for attacks against Israel. Sidiq overthrew Ayman Zawahri, who was aligned with Saudi fugitive billionaire Osama Bin Laden.