Egyptian officials have revealed more information about 83 alleged Islamic militants under investigation for planning terrorist attacks, including the fact that several hold more than one passport.
They told AFP that two Egyptians among the group of 83 Islamists under investigation by military prosecutors in Cairo were several who also hold Western citizenship, one with US nationality and the other Dutch, legal sources told the agency on Tuesday.
Mohammed Seif Al Din, an American-Egyptian who trained to be a pilot in Florida, and Hisham Diab, a Dutch-Egyptian, are among the six main suspected members of the group the Egyptian authorities dismantled in May, the sources told the agency.
A journalist close to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reported last week that the group was a sleeper cell of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, but Mubarak later denied the allegation.
The editor-in-chief of Al Musawwar magazine had said two members of the group had trained at the same Florida aviation schools attended by an Egyptian suspected of flying into the World Trade Center in New York on September 11.
Mubarak referred the 83 suspected Islamic militants - including 79 Egyptians, a Yemeni and three citizens of the Russian republic of Daghistan - to military prosecutors on Saturday.
They are suspected of belonging to an illegal organization and fundraising for the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya.
Two of the main suspects, Egyptians Magdi Idris and Hisham Metwalli, trained their recruits in two gymnasiums they owned in Cairo, the sources said.
Another one of the 83 was a preacher in the Al Hadi Mohammedi mosque in northeastern Cairo, Sheikh Nashaat Ahmed Ibrahim, who was in charge of fundraising for Chechen militants, they added.
Most of them had left Egypt via various countries before reaching Georgia, where they received weapons training with a view to departing for Chechnya where they were due to fight the Russian army, said the report.
But they never joined the Chechen forces for unspecified security reasons and returned to Egypt where they were arrested, Egyptian legal sources said.
On Tuesday, the Cairo-based Al Ahram daily said that 170 alleged members and leaders of the outlawed Al Gamaa Al Islamiyya were also being detained on similar charges. The Gamaa has reportedly laid down its arms, but reports refer to dormant cells that could be activated at any time – Albawaba.com
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