Security authorities delayed the release of Islamist prisoners who had been scheduled to be set free for Eid al-Adha, which ends Monday, after the arreste of suspected terrorist cell members in Nasr City last week, jihadi sources told London-based paper Al-Hayat.
Sources told the paper that senior Jama’a al-Islamiya leader Anwar Hamed and Jihad group leader Ahmed Salama Mabrouk were among the prisoners set for release. They added that security suspended their release though they had no ties to the apprehended cell.
Hamed is Jama’a al-Islamiya’s last prisoner at Al-Aqrab Prison. He had been sentenced to life for the murder of police officers at Minya, Upper Egypt. He turned himself in on 1998 after the group renounced violence.
Cairo security officers apprehended four Egyptians in Nasr City who are suspected to have links to the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in September, which killed US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. The suspects include a former army officer. One Libyan citizen suspected of being involved in the attack was killed during the raid. Police also stormed another hideout in the Fifth Settlement as part of the raid.
The Supreme State Security Court on Thursday ordered the suspects to be remanded into custody for 15 days pending investigations.
