 Egypt's Supreme Military Court released on Wednesday a top member of the 94 Islamist militants charged with plotting to assassinate top officials and attempting to smuggle weapons to the Palestinian group, Hamas. Sheikh Fawzi Al-Said, a prominent mosque preacher at the eastern Cairo suburb of Nasr City, was a member of a controversial militant group called Al-Waad, or the Promise, which was charged with illegally collecting money to send to Palestinians in support of their year-long uprising, and also to Chechens fighting Russian forces in 2001. The Al-Waad case defendants, who include three foreign nationals from the former Soviet republic of Dagestan and three Egyptians who hold dual nationalities, were also accused of providing military trainings to people in Chechnya and Azerbaijan. After the Sept.11 attacks, however, the charges against Al-Said and other members expanded dramatically to include more serious charges of seeking to topple the government and assassinate top government officials, and the group was referred to a military trial. |