Mohammad Al-Zawahiri, a member of the Islamic Jihad group, was sentenced in absentia in Egypt in 1998, his lawyer Nizar Ghurab said. He was extradited from the United Arab Emirates in 1999 and has been in jail ever since, he said. The Interior Ministry ordered his release along with dozens of political detainees on Wednesday in line with the orders from the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to release political detainees, security sources said.
Ghurab said Zawahiri, who is in his 50s, should have been released in 2001 after the constitutional court declared that “agreeing” to commit a crime without actually carrying it out was not illegal.
The charge was routinely levelled at Islamists who were seen as a threat by the administration of President Hosni Mubarak, who was forced to step down on Feb. 11 by a mass uprising.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has been governing Egypt since Mubarak stepped down.
Zawahiri is the latest prominent Islamist to be released from jail since Mubarak was ousted. On Saturday, two Islamists jailed in connection with the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 were also set free.
