CAIRO: Two cousins jailed for their role in the assassination of then-president Anwar Sadat in 1981 were released Saturday to a huge welcome, their lawyer Nizar Ghorab said.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ordered their release Thursday.
Abboud and Tarek El-Zomor served multiple sentences for their role in the shooting death of Sadat during a Cairo military parade. Ghorab said they were kept behind bars because Mubarak’s regime feared their return to political life.
They were convicted in 1984 of plotting the assassination and of belonging to the outlawed Islamic Jihad group — but not of actually killing Sadat. The five prime suspects, including the shooter, were captured and executed.
Tarek El-Zomor was ordered released in July 2005, but he was not set free because of an interior ministry’s discretionary power to hold a prisoner for up to five more years on security grounds. Abboud El-Zomor was also expected to be released after serving his term but was kept behind bars on the same grounds.
Egyptians gather waiting for the release of Abboud and Tarek Al-Zomor, members of Egypt’s Islamic Jihad, from Tora jail, in Hilwan on the outskirts of Cairo, on March 12. (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)
