319 Wilayat Sinai members added to terror list

CAIRO - 7 March 2018: A total of 319 Wilayat Sinai members have been added to Egypt's terror list for three years, and fourteen others have been removed from the list due to death.

The decree from Cairo Criminal Court was published in the Official Gazette on Wednesday. The report included the name of the terror groups leader, Ali Salman el-Derz Bal'awy, stating he adopts the ideology of the Islamic State (IS) group, believes the police and military are "apostates," and thus may be killed, as well as Christians.

Wilayat Sinai (Sinai Province) is an offshoot of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group, which emerged in North Sinai after the 2011 upheaval, but orchestrated major attacks following the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

The government labeled the group a terrorist organization in April 2015, after it had already pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014.

Tarek al-Zumar, a leader of al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya, was also added to the list. He was jailed from 1984 to 2011 for his involvement in the 1981 assassination of late President Anwar al-Sadat. He is believed to reside in Turkey.

On Feb. 20, the court added former Islamist presidential candidate

Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh

to the list for inciting against the state and the constitution, being a member of a law-labeled terrorist group and communicating with fugitives, among other charges.