Last update - 00:00 08/04/2007
Egypt's supreme court overrules release order for Sadat assassin
By The Associated Press
Egypt's top civilian court on Saturday overruled an order to release one of two leading Islamic militants who spent more than 20 years behind bars, jailed over the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, and referred the case of the second suspect to a security court, a judicial official said.
Although Tarek el-Zomor, 47, was ordered released in July 2005, he was never set free but was kept in custody, according to an Interior Ministry discretion to hold a prisoner for up to five years more on security grounds.
El-Zomor was arrested with his cousin, Lt. Abboud el-Zomor, now 60, for taking part in Sadat's killing during a Cairo military parade on Oct. 6, 1981. They were convicted in 1984 of plotting the assassination and of belonging to the outlawed Islamic Jihad group.
Both were sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum term under Egyptian law, but did not shoot Sadat. The five prime suspects, including the shooter, were captured and executed.
The Supreme Court on Saturday also ordered Abboud el-Zomor's case transferred to the State Security Court, for trial on charges of belonging to the banned Islamic Jihad group, the judicial official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
The move is believed likely to get the elder cousin a swift, no-appeals trial.
The older cousin is believed to be the leader of the Islamic Jihad, a principal militant group behind the Egyptian president's assassination. The group was once led by Osama bin Laden's top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. The Egyptian group is not related to the Palestinian group of the same name.
In the late 1990s, Islamic Jihad merged with Al-Qaida, led by Osama bin Laden, which is blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.