Around 600 protesters staged a march around Tahrir Square after Friday prayers to demand the release of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the Blind Sheikh, who is currently serving a life sentence in the state of Colorado in the United States.
Abdel Rahman is accused of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York.
Abdel Rahman's son Abdallah said in a statement today that those who staged the protest are a large group of his father's supporters, but that Jama'a al-Islamiya has nothing to do with the march.
Abdel Rahman graduated from Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He was arrested in Egypt in October 1981 and tried in connection with his issuing of a fatwa that may have resulted in the 1981 assassination of former President Anwar Sadat.
He left prison in October 1984, and then traveled to the United States, where he was accused of planning the 1993 bombing.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
