Egypt court lists 164 Islamists as leading "terrorists"

An Egyptian court listed 164 Islamists as leaders of terrorist entities, including leading members of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) as well as loyalists of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, official MENA news agency reported.

The list includes Assem Abdel-Maged, Mohamed al-Islambouli and Tarek al-Zomor of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, a self-proclaimed anti-government Islamic group that committed violent and terror activities in Egypt in the 1990s, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

Cairo Criminal Court also ordered to seize their funds to be supervised and run by special committees.

"These are judicial precautionary measures that seek preservation and protection of the society," said the court, noting that an individual is listed as terrorist after proven guilty of crimes that ruin the principles and values of of the society.

Leading members of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, who have been jailed following the assassination of late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981, were pardoned and released in the wake of the 2011 uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.

Most Islamists and Brotherhood loyalists have either been jailed or fugitives since the popular-backed military ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in early July 2013.

Many of them have received appealable death sentences and life imprisonments over charges varying from inciting violence and murder to espionage and jailbreak.

Morsi himself is now serving a 20-year prison sentence over inciting deadly clashes between his supporters and opponents in late 2012 and a 25-year jail term over leaking classified documents to Qatar.

Since Morsi's ouster, Egypt has been facing a wave of terror attacks that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers as well as civilians.

A Sinai-based militant group affiliated with the Islamic State regional terrorist group claimed responsibility for most of the attacks in Egypt over the past few years.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian forces have killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster.

--IANS

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