Posted on 01/23/2003 12:58:43 PM PST by knighthawk
Forty-three Islamists are to go on trial in an Egyptian military court for an alleged plot to attack the US and Israeli embassies in Cairo, a lawyer said on Thursday.
Muntasser al-Zayat, who represents Islamist defendants, said military prosecutors had decided to put on trial the suspects, whose arrests were announced in early January, in a month's time after the end of questioning.
The government daily Al-Ahram has said the suspects rounded up in the Delta north of Cairo were members of the armed Egyptian group Al-Jihad, which is led by the Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is regarded as Osama bin Laden's lieutenant.
But Zayat said that while accused of planning attacks on the US and Israeli embassies, they were "linked to no organisation."
They had tried in vain to slip into the Palestinian territories to fight Israel after they were "shaken by the images of the massacre in Jenin", the paper said.
More than 50 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army last April in the refugee camp and West Bank town of Jenin.
The daily said that after they failed to join the Palestinians, the group started planning attacks against interests of Western countries, which are accused of supporting Israel.
I think Egypt stands on the border of helping Israel, and wanting to destroy it. The government has a peace-agreement, and the US puts pressure on Egypt to help Israel. But on the other end we got the islamists, who want to destroy Israel. The same kind of islamists also want to remove the Egyptian government. That is an important reason why the Egyptians fight them.
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