Egypt Jails Britons For Spreading Islamist Propaganda

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 3-26-2004 | David Blair

[blam]

Egypt jails Britons for spreading Islamist propaganda

By David Blair in Cairo
(Filed: 26/03/2004)

Cries of "Allah akbar" (God is great) rang through an Egyptian courtroom yesterday as three Britons were sentenced to five years in jail for spreading the propaganda of a banned Islamist group.

Ian Nisbet, 29, Maajid Nawaz, 26, and Reza Pankhurst, 28, were among 25 defendants herded into a cage of wire mesh in the dock of Cairo's high court.

When the judge convicted all the men on every charge they rose as one and punched the air in jubilation, hugging one another and bellowing their thanks to God.

"I'm proud to stand here for the sake of my religion," Nawaz, from Southend, told the Telegraph as he sat in the cage.

"We have already won by exposing the hypocrisy of the Egyptian government that at this moment is speaking of democratic reforms but imprisoning people for free speech."

Nawaz, who studied Islamic Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, added that he would use his time in jail to learn the Koran by heart.

Nisbet, from Upton Park in London, said: "We thank God for everything. We hope that God is going to reward us in the afterlife."

The Britons were arrested by Egyptian police in April 2002 and charged with promoting the goals of Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami, an outlawed Islamist group. This non-violent organisation, the Islamic Liberation Party, has a legal presence in Britain and aims to establish a unified Islamic caliphate across the Muslim world. Egypt crushed an Islamist insurrection in the 1990s and banned the group almost 30 years ago.

All three Britons confessed to the charges and this testimony was crucial to the evidence against them.

But the confessions were extracted under torture, they said. Human rights groups have documented numerous cases of torture in Egyptian prisons and say it is routinely inflicted on anyone suspected of having Islamist links.

Nisbet, who goes by the name Yehiya, said he was forced to listen to the cries of other prisoners being tortured with electric shock batons. "You're hearing this continuous screaming and it's real screaming, it's blood-curdling," he said.

During his first four days in custody, Nisbet said he was forced to watch as another prisoner was stripped to his underwear and subjected to electric shocks.

Nisbet converted to Islam while studying electronic engineering at Westminster University in 1995.

He claimed that he was in Cairo to learn Arabic. Pankhurst and Nawaz have testified that they visited Egypt for the same reason.

A state security court imposed their sentence under Egypt's emergency laws. There is no avenue for appeal, although President Hosni Mubarak must confirm the verdict. Michael Gifford, Britain's deputy ambassador in Cairo, said the matter would be discussed with the Egyptian government.

Zara Pankhurst, mother of Reza, reacted to the sentence with fury. "It was a Mickey Mouse trial in a kangaroo court with Goofy as judge," she said as she left court. "The judge is obviously given his orders by state security."

The three have already served two years in jail after their trial was constantly delayed by legal wrangling. They will now spend three years in jail, the remainder of the five-year sentence.

Nisbet's father, Alistair, from Brackley, Northants, said he and his wife were "livid and devastated" by the sentence. "If the case had been heard over here, it would have been laughed out of court," he added.

[No Blue States]

"Nisbet's father, Alistair, from Brackley, Northants, said he and his wife were "livid and devastated" by the sentence."

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