Joining Al-Qaeda

Case Summary

The First Terrorism Circuit, convened at the Badr Court Complex, chaired by judge Mohamed El-Said El-Shorbagy and members judges Essam Abul-Ela, Ghareeb Mohamed Metwally, Mahmoud Zidan, and Mohamed Nabil, is revisiting the proceedings of a court for one defendant sentenced to death “in absentia” in the case popularly known in the media as “Joining Al-Qaeda”. The Public Prosecution has accused all defendants in the case of, during the period from 2008 to May 2013, within the jurisdiction of the Nozha Police Department in Cairo, establishing and managing a group contrary to the provisions of the law to disable the constitution and laws, prevent state institutions from performing their work, and assault citizens’ personal freedoms. The defendants are also accused of collaborating with those working on behalf of a terrorist organization based abroad, to commit terrorist acts inside Egypt, by agreeing with Al-Qaeda leaders to cooperate with them in carrying out terrorist acts against members of the armed forces and foreign embassies in the country. The court decided to adjourn the retrial of a defendant who was sentenced in absentia to death, for being accused, along with others previously convicted, of belonging to the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, to the session on March 21 for pleading.