Aboud al-Zomor, one of the plotters of Sadat’s assassination in 1981, called on the Muslim Brotherhood group to rescind its position of non-participation in the next presidential elections and field one of its qualified cadres in them. Al-Zomor was recently released from prison after spending nearly 30 years behind bars.
“But I will not run,” he told Al-Masry Al-Youm. “There are many others better than me.”
He said that the Islamic movement is the “safety valve” of Egyptian society. “Jamaa Islamiya needs to prepare themselves for political activism through legitimate channels,” he said.
Al-Zomor praised Islamic resistance movements for their victories in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon, and he criticized the Egyptian government for exporting gas to Israel.
His cousin Tarek, who was also convicted in the assassination, said the general assembly of Jamaa Islamiya would convene soon to form a Shura Council and an executive committee to devise a platform for the group.
He also said revisions of the group’s views, which were announced from prison 20 years after its members were arrested, had been rejected by the former regime.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
