Egypt has arrested 118 suspected Islamic militants, including four British passport holders, a Nigerian and a Palestinian, charged with trying to reactivate an underground organisation, a lawyer said on Thursday.
The arrests were made in March, said Abdul Moneim Abdul Maqsood, the lawyer appointed by some of the suspects who were put under preventive detention.
The state security court’s prosecution service this week started questioning the militants who are accused of trying to reactivate Hizb al-Tahrir (Liberation Party) and recruiting members, he said.
The lawyer said that none of his clients were charged with links to terror mastermind Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, during the interrogations he attended.
Three of the British passport holders are of Pakistani origin, and one of Japanese origin, an Islamic activist living in London, Yasser Tufiq al-Serri said.
Abdul Maqsood said ”many young students are among those arrested, and also 63-year-old lawyer Mohammed Abdul Qawi Abdul Guelil, thought to be the liaison officer between the militants in Egypt and the movement’s leadership abroad.”
Hizb al-Tahrir was set up in Jordan in the early 1970s with the aim of unifying Muslim countries under the authority of a ”caliph”, through military coups, according to an expert in Islamist organisations.
The movement has spread to several Arab states, including Egypt where it staged a failed attempt in the mid-1970s to topple the secular regime.
The group subsequently faced a harsh repression.
Serri said the suspects arrested in March have been charged with trying to enlist the help of Egyptian political figures in spreading their ideas.
The dozens of suspects are also accused of having distributed leaflets in Egypt and through the Internet, denouncing the government’s economic policy, he said.
In April, Egyptian police announced the arrest of more than 50 members of Hizb al-Tahrir suspected of ties with al-Qaeda, including four British passport holders. – Sapa-AFP