AL-ARISH, Egypt: Bedouin tribal leaders in Sinai on Sunday asked President Hosni Mubarak to order the release of Bedouins arrested after attacks on the peninsula since 2004, one of them said.
El-Kashef Mohammed El-Kashef said chiefs of 10 tribes had signed a letter to Mubarak asking that Bedouins still being held without charge be freed. According to a judicial source, nearly 150 Bedouins are still being detained. They were among thousands rounded up in Egypt following attacks which killed 19 people in the seaside resort of Dahab in April 2006, 34 people in attacks in Taba in October 2004 and nearly 70 at Sharm El-Sheikh in July 2005.
Their detention is constantly renewed for needs of the inquiry
