I bumped tonight into an Islamist lawyer I know who is a former member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. We chatted about several issues including Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri’s latest video, current political situation, and more importantly (for me) the issue of Islamist political detainees–those terror suspects who’ve been languishing in Egypt’s Gulags since the 1990s without trial.
The Egyptian Interior Ministry never gave figures for the number of prisoners and detainees. The figures for detainees in the 1990s, put by rights watchdogs, have drastically varied. EOHR puts it at 22,000. I heard other figures that went up to 40,000.
The Egyptian Interior Ministry never gave figures for the number of prisoners and detainees. The figures for detainees in the 1990s, put by rights watchdogs, have drastically varied. EOHR puts it at 22,000. I heard other figures that went up to 40,000.
Last March, EOHR put the number of detainees at something between 16,000 and 18,000, due to the release of thousands of Gamaa Islamiya detainees with their renunciation of violence.
The Islamist lawyer I met tonight said there are currently from 5,000 to 6,000 Islamist detainees in prisons. According to him, the Gamaa’s detainees are roughly 600 only, while those of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad number 2,000, and the rest are a mixture of salafis, Sinai bombers’ suspects and a random bunch.
Of course I have no means to verify this independently.
Recommended Book:
Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam
When you are governed by an Illegitimate and outlaw Dictatorship,never been elected by the Egyptians,never represented Egypt or the Egyptians but only represent their Masters in Tell Aviv&Washington who implanted them illegitimately and supported and recognised them as a Government internationaly without the concent of the Egyptian citizens,then we don’t need Einstein to remind us to remove this Illegal and cancerous body from Egypt NOW,no room for discoveries or questions any more,but Total Liberation from the Scums.
Alright there Mr. Bathhouse, I don’t think you can call Jerusalem Cairo’s master. I think Egypt had a dysfunctional government before peace with Israel and before it got its yearly billions from the US.
What I wonder is this, and maybe someone on this site can give an answer or present some link that provides an array of views. I know Egypt’s government said, in the past, things like: “You might not like us but the alternatives are worse.” Which seems, to an outsider, to be true. So what’s the refutation to that argument? Or, what do people here propose as a good way forward? Should the US just stop funding Egypt’s gov’t, tomorrow, and let what happens happen? Or what?
No one needs to convince me Egypt’s government is bad.
dan it’s spelled T-E-L A-V-I-V not Jerusalem.
and the alternative is to let Egyptians choose whoever they want and live with the consequences (which are bound to hurt Egyptians more than anyone if we make the wrong choice, so stop worrying about it)
Wait, so only about a third or a fifth of Islamist detainees are known to be members of Gamaa Islamiyya or Islamic Jihad? That means the majority have been picked up on random suspicions or because they are MBs, or because it suited the govt to label them Islamists?
SP… surprise surprise.
Family members, friends, relatives of Islamists. Random arrests. People who’ve received multiple court rulings ordering their release. Etc, etc.
Ah yes, silly me, I read Hossam’s post to mean that all the detainees mentioned were confirmed to be some sort of Islamist. Forgot for a moment that this is Egypt we’re talking about.
“We chatted about several issues including Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri’s latest video, current political situation, …”
Ok that was supposed to be the interesting part! (for me anyway) Any chance to write a transcript of this chat?
Very interesting stuff ya Hossam. If these numbers are true it means the numbers of prisoners has subtstantially decreased over the last ten years. And it also points, as SP noted, that many of the people in jail (often without being charged of anything, don’t forget!) are not affiliated with any serious organized Islamist group. And of course a number of them could simply be picked up to fill quotas or because they like the mosque a bit too much.
I’ll always remember how once, during the Hizb at-Tahrir trial a few years ago, I met this older woman who came to the court every time she heard about any Islamists being on trial. Her son had been picked up by police years before and never heard of again. The police would not confirm they arrested him (although she later found out) and the prison administration would not tell her where he was or whether they even had him. So all she could do was spend the day at courts trying to look at the defendants when they walked in, hoping to recognize her son among them.
Hey Ahmed. It would be a bit difficult to run a transcript of the chat, but just briefly on the video: The lawyer said it was indeed a (farqa3a I3lamiya) “publicity stunt” by Hakayma, that the media outlets blew out of proportions.