The assassination of former President Anwar al-Sadat was a preamble to the 25 January revolution in Egypt, Tarek al-Zomor, a leading figure in the formerly outlawed Jama'a al-Islamiya, has said.
Zomor said on Friday night that there were many reasons for the revolution, including the violation of people's dignity and enslaving them through the oppressive State Security Agency.
Zomor was convicted in 1982, along with his cousin Aboud al-Zomor, for killing Sadat. In March, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ordered their release, among other political prisoners who had served 15 years or more of their jail terms.
Zomor was speaking at a conference held in support of Jama'a al-Islamiya and Salafi-led Nour Party candidates in the third electoral constituency in Assuit, where a court ruled that elections should be re-conducted.
He described the Upper Egyptian governorate of Assiut as a brave governorate that sacrificed a lot to confront the corrupt regime of former President Hosni Mubarak.
Zomor argued that the martyrs are not only those who killed in Tahrir Square, “there are martyrs also who died in detention.”
He continued his speech by saying that people revolted because the resources of the country were plundered, and because not only was Egyptian national security violated, but the national security of all Arab nations.
“The state of law had been lost and freedoms were trampled upon by the Central Security Forces and Mubarak's men. A detainee could be acquitted by 60 courts and never be released,” he said.
He added that the Mubarak regime defamed Egypt all over the world, and Egyptian detentions became a fertile material for western fiction about the most brutal prisons, because mercy or humanitarian ethics were never taken into account in dealing with Egyptian detainees.
