164 figures of Jamaa al-Islamiya placed on terror list

CAIRO – 29 October 2018: Cairo Criminal Court placed the names of 164 individuals, all belonging to Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya movement and the Building and Development Party, the movement's political wing, on Egypt's terror list.

The names enlisted include Asim Abdel Maged, Tarek al-Zumar, Mohammed al-Islambouli and Safwat Abdel Ghani, who are all accused of supporting and financing hostile activities in Egypt.

It is the first time for the leaders of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya and its political wing to be placed on the list of terrorist figures by the Egyptian judiciary at the request of Attorney General Nabil Sadek, except for Zumar and Abdel Maged, who have been placed earlier.

Zumar has been accused by Egyptian authorities of funding the terrorist activities in the country following July 2013.

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Zumar and Abdel Maged to death during its session last September in the case known in media as "Rabaa sit-in dispersal," concerning violence that took place following the ousting of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated former President Mohamed Morsi.

Earlier in October, Egypt’s High Administrative Court adjourned a trial to dissolve the Building and Development Party to February, amid Parliament’s attempts to dissolve all political parties formed unconstitutionally on religious bases.

The Egyptian authorities sent several requests to the Interpol to extradite wanted terrorists several times, including those in Qatar and Turkey like Zumar.

Zumar was imprisoned in 1984, along with his cousin Abboud al-Zumar, over an accusation of assassinating former Egyptian President Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat.