Turah / Helwan

A number of imprisoned Brotherhood members attested before the prosecution that police tortured them. The accused members insisted that they could prove they were tortured in the police station. Twelve members attested that they were tortured by police in an attempt to force them to make confessions to illegal actions they did not carry out.

For the first time, the Ministry of Interior announces the death of one of its detainees, Akram Al-Zohari, who had been imprisoned in Mazra’et Tura prison. The Ministry delegated a committee from the parliament to go and listen to members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Two days before Zohari ’s death, two members of parliament affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood submitted an interpolation request concerning the torture of eight Brotherhood members.

The article is a comment by Usama Rushdie, a leader in the Al-Gama’a Al-Islamiya, on the memoirs of Ayman Al-Zawahri. He stressed that the opinion he expressed in the article does not represent the attitude of the Gama’at Al-Islamiya as he is not authorized to speak on behalf of them.

In his book "Knights under the flag of the Prophet," Ayman Al-Zawahri directed much criticism against Montasser Al-Zayyat, the fundamentalists’ lawyer, for sponsoring the initiative to cease violence. Al-Zawahri claimed that Al-Zayyat enjoys security facilities that many ministers do not enjoy and that he sought to give the impression that the concept of the Islamic jihad as practiced by the Islamic groups is a form of violence in the favor of those who will get benefits from the initiative.

Saad Eddin Ibrahim hopes to be retried, especially as the court declared the military decree under which he was tried and convicted unconstitutional. December 19 was the date set for deciding about the appeal he lodged against the seven-year prison sentence he was given in the case against the Ibn Khaldoun Center.

Abud Al-Zumor, the Jihad member who was among the first to sign the initiative denouncing violence was moved from Tora prison, where the members of the shura council of Al-Gama’at Al-Islamiya are serving various prison sentences, to Abu Zabal prison. This was believed to be a step to separate the members of the Gama’at Al-Islamiya, who supported the initiative and the Jihad members who were against it.

The Egyptian authority released two leaders of the Gama’at Al-Islamiya who were sentenced to 15 years in the case of Sadat’s assassination. The release came one week before the four-year anniversary of the peace initiative declared by the leaders of the Gama’at Al-Islamiya.

Several wings within the Brotherhood are looking to fill the position of the general guide after Mustafa Mashhour. Some outsiders think succession in the Brotherhood is a result of conflict between the elders and the middle generation. Others claim that it is a power struggle between the "secret" organization and those who are not within this secret organization. In cases where neither of these two fronts wins the struggle, the guide is chosen from among figures outside the war zone.

The Mufti issued a fatwa stating that defending a person who is accused of spying is haram [religiously forbidden] and that the one who helps to free such a person is a partner in the sin. The fatwa was met with much resistance. The mother of Sherif Al-Felali, who is accused of spying for Israel expressed her dissatisfaction at it. Egyptian newspapers described it as a fatwa that destroys the principles of justice.

Through an interview with Yasser Al-Serri, one the most famous Egyptian extremists, now living in London, the writer exposed the opportunism of the extremists and their mercurial ability at tailoring the Halal and Haram [permitted and forbidden according to Islam] to suit their purposes. While forbidding acceptance of Egyptian government salaries, saying that government money was mixed with money from interest on loans and sale of alcohol and gambling, which is Haram [forbidden according to Islam] they accept large salaries from the English government.