Egypt frees hundreds of militants

[Sacha]

Egypt frees hundreds of militants

Wednesday, 12 April 2006, 01:41 GMT 02:41 UK

Egypt has released about 900 members of the militant group Gamaa Islamiya, the interior ministry has said.

It said the releases took place over the last 10 days and one of the founders of the group, Najeh Ibrahim, was among those freed.

Gamaa Islamiya was once Egypt's largest militant group. It mounted attacks on tourists and Christians in the 1990s.

But the group declared a ceasefire in 1999 and some of its imprisoned leaders went on to renounce violence.

The BBC's Heba Saleh in Cairo said the group had been largely crushed by the security forces before it declared its truce.

Attacks blamed on Gamaa Islamiya included the November 1997 assault at Luxor which killed 58 people, most of them foreign tourists.

The authorities released hundreds of members in 2003.

But human rights groups said there were still around 15,000 detainees in Egyptian jails who had never appeared before a judge.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4901758.stm

[Gaius Millhelm]

This worries me

[al_gy]

Saudi frees former terror suspects


06:08:12 È.Ù
Dubai, April 13 - Saudi Arabia has freed thousands of former terror suspects whose responsibility was deemed to be low or who recanted their previous beliefs, the kingdom's Interior Minister said on Thursday.

"We have freed thousands," Prince Nayef Bin Abdel Aziz told the Al-Arabiya sattellite channel, without giving a specific number or a time for the release.

"We are holding on to those who we have to keep or those who have been found guilty," he added.

"The releases are continuing ... but those who were found guilty, sent to court and suject to investigations" are being kept in detention.

"As for those whose responsibility is limited, they have been freed with a caution and have gone back on their previous links and vowed to distance themselves from these. Thus they have been freed."

[Ono]

Well, as long as they made promises to distance themselves.....

[exitwound]

It is definitely a good idea to release the innocent and/or wrongly accused....but one worries about moments like these when people who were incarcerated are released back into the population. Even if they weren't guilty of what they were originally accused....they may very well now be very much ready to support terrorist actions.

[Electric]

You might be surprised to know what it costs to incarcerate a person, let alone try them, even with free labor. So it surprises me not at all that they would set some free.

What does surprise me is jailing folks for drug use, especially lightweight drugs like mj.

But one has to wonder about the formerly violent ones keeping their promises to behave. :-?

[CuriousGeorge]

Originally Posted by exitwound

It is definitely a good idea to release the innocent and/or wrongly accused....but one worries about moments like these when people who were incarcerated are released back into the population. Even if they weren't guilty of what they were originally accused....they may very well now be very much ready to support terrorist actions.

My concern is that the innocent and/or wrongly accused now have a gripe against the Egyptian government for imprisoning them in the first place with some who probably were not so Innocent to begin with. And now that these individuals have been exposed to the not so Innocent they are easily recruited to the cause as they have now been wronged and a viscous cycle has now begun. How many of these people who were wronged will now take up armed resistance against the gubmint of Egypt in retaliation???

There is some food for thought and would cause me a few sleepless nights if I were in charge in Egypt.

[exitwound]

A damn good point, CG!

[Gaius Millhelm]

Egypt is rotting from the inside, Russian intelligence is working to make the outcome favorable to them///