Al-Qaeda leader's brother released in Egypt

The brother of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri was acquitted by an Egyptian military court on Monday.

Mohamed Al-Zawahiri had been convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 for his involvement in militant camps in Albania and for allegedly planning military operations inside Egypt.

His son, Abdelrahman, said “thank god he was found innocent” in a phone call to AFP.

His lawyer Kemel Mandur said they were expecting him to be released within the next few days.

Al-Zawahiri was released alongside a number of others known for militant activity, Mandur said.

Among those freed were Mohammed Islambouli, whose brother Khaled assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Saddat in 1981, and Al-Zawahiri's mentor Sayyed Imam Fadl, a former spiritual leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Al-Zawahiri was indicted in absentia for the assassination of Saddat, but was found not guilty.

Since the fall of Hosni Mubarak's regime in February 2011 many Islamist militants have returned to Egypt while many of those in jail have been released.

Al-Jamaat al-Islamiya, the militant group involved in the Saddat assassination, have formed an Islamic political party with representatives in the Egyptian parliament.

(Al-Akhbar, AFP)