Here’s an AP report by Nadia Abou El-Magd about Mubarak’s Gestapo’s crackdown on Islamist lawyer Mamdouh Ismail:
Prominent Islamist lawyer arrested, accused of membership in militant group
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Egyptian police have arrested a prominent Islamist lawyer suspected of belonging to the militant al-Jihad group here, and accused him of spreading false rumors to defame Egypt’s reputation and incite public opinion, judicial officials and lawyers said.
Mamdouh Ismail, who has been defending Islamic militants since early 1990s, was arrested last Thursday, the officials said on customary condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
On Saturday, state security prosecutors ordered him detained for 15 days for questioning.
Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud, one of Ismail’s lawyers, told The Associated Press that his client is accused of acting as a liaison between al-Jihad leaders abroad, including Ayman Al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s lieutenant, and al-Jihad detainees inside Egypt.
Ismail is also accused of maintaining contact with al-Qaida leaders in Iraq, Yemen and Algeria, and is suspected of trying to recruit new militants, the lawyer said.
Ismail denied all charges when he was interrogated on Monday and the investigation is expected to resume Wednesday, Abdel Maqsoud added.
Ismail is also accused of defaming Egypt in his interviews with Arab satellite television channels and in his anti-government newspaper columns in which he wrote about alleged maltreatment of Islamist detainees in Egyptian prisons.
Ismail has been critical of reported attempts to establish a truce between Al-Jihad and the government, similar to the one reached by al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, or Islamic group, the largest militant group in Egypt, 10 years ago.
Mainly al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, but to a lesser extent also al-Jihad, were responsible for violent campaign against the Egyptian regime in the 1990s, but were not involved in attacks in Egypt since.
He has often defended Egyptian Islamists, including some from the al-Jihad _ which in Arabic means Holy War _ who were accused of participating in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar al-Sadat, along with the al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya.
Ismail, believed to be in his late forties [46 years old], was himself arrested among hundreds just after Sadat’s assassination, on charges of being involved in it. He was sentenced to three years in jail and was released in 1984, along with many young Egyptian militants, including Al-Zawahri.
What a pile of government lies, fabrications, and bullshit! Mamdouh was arrested for no other reason than his uncompromising campaign for detainees’ rights, and his anti-regime statements to the media. I said it before, and I’ll say it again, Mamdouh Ismail is someone I know well enough to be certain he is NOT an Islamic Jihad operative. And the bloody organization does NOT exist anymore.
My solidarity and thoughts go to Mamdouh, while he languishes in Tora Prison.
