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Egypt succeeds in new extradition bid for insurgents

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Tuesday, January 2, 2002

LONDON ø Egypt continues to achieve gains in efforts to obtain fugitives wanted for Islamic insurgent attacks.

Jordan has extradited seven members of the Egyptian-based Gamiat Islamiya to Egypt. The seven are believed connected to the 1995 assassination attempt of President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa.

The extradition took place last month and was the latest in the transfer of Islamic insurgents to Cairo wanted by Egypt for attacks that date from as early as 1992. Earlier, Egypt obtained custody of Gamiat leader Rifai Ahmed Taha, who was said to have been extradited from Syria.

On Wednesday, a Cairo military court resumes the trial of Islamic militants. In all, 22 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood have been placed on trial.

The London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily identified the seven insurgents.

They are Mubarak Ali Abbas, Rifat Abd Ali Jawad, Issam Mahmoud, Sami Amin, Saud Hussein Ali, Amr Omar and Sawfat Mohammed Shaker. The newspaper did not provide details of the alleged activities of the insurgents or whether they were connected to Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden.

Egyptian intelligence officers have been interrogating scores of Al Qaida members being held in the Pakistani city of Kohat. The officers are believed to be seeking links between Al Qaida and Egyptian insurgency groups.

Egypt has been successful in winning the extradition of nearly 20 Islamic fugitives since the attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11. They include suspected insurgents captured in Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Sweden.

In all, Egypt has drafted a list of 150 Islamic insurgents who have escaped abroad. Arab diplomatic sources said many of the names on the list reside in Britain, which has refused to extradite insurgents to Egypt.

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