“Egypt’s most-wanted Islamist to face trial,” from Middle East Times, with thanks to Ali Dashti:
CAIRO — The alleged mastermind of an assassination plot against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is in Egyptian custody and will be put on trial, a cabinet minister said in remarks published on Sunday.
“Mustafa Hamza is here in Egypt and will be referred to the judicial authorities to be re-tried,” interior minister Habib Al Adly told the Al Ahram government newspaper.
Hamza, one of Egypt’s most-wanted men, heads the outlawed Al Gamaa Al Islamiya Islamic militant group and is suspected of planning a bid to assassinate Mubarak during a visit to Addis Ababa in 1995.
He has been separately sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt and, according to Egyptian law, will now be re-tried.
Al Gamaa Al Islamiya was also responsible for the murder of 58 German tourists and four Egyptians in an attack in the ancient Nile resort of Luxor in November 1997.
The group observed a de facto truce following the massacre and announced in March 1999 that it was renouncing violence.
Well! That makes it all better!