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| Africa North |
| Egyptian opposition politician may face military trial |
| 2009-02-01 |
| An Egyptian opposition politician will face military prosecutors on Monday for going to the Gaza Strip in a highly publicized trip last week, his lawyer told Deutsche Presse- Agentur (DPA) on Sunday. The Egyptian military detained Magdi Hussein, a fiery orator from Egypt's suspended Labour Party, on Saturday on charges of crossing Egypt's borders illegally, Hussein's lawyer, Hassan Ali, told DPA on Sunday. Military prosecutors will interrogate Hussein on Monday before deciding whether to try him before a military tribunal, Ali said. Hussein chronicled his trip in daily entries posted to the Labour Party's website after he crossed into the Gaza Strip through a hole in the border fence on January 23. In an interview published in London's pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi the day before his arrest, Hussein said that expected to be detained or sent back to Gaza when he attempted to return to Egypt. 'I know I will face more troubles when I go back to Egypt next week,' Hussein told the daily. 'They might prevent me from entering Egypt from Rafah.' Hussein told al-Quds al-Arabi that he thrice failed to enter Rafah legally before 'a friend' helped him to enter the territory through a hole in the border fence created, he said, when Israeli warplanes bombed the area. The Egyptian politician said he went with no clear idea what he would do when he arrived in the salient. Once there, he joined a Moroccan parliamentary delegation and Kuwaiti MP Walid Al-Tabatabai on a tour of the destruction in the territory. Al-Tabtabai said he visited Gaza on January 22, arriving 'by special ways' after Egypt stopped him from entering via the Rafah crossing, London's pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported last Wednesday. The newspaper hinted that Tabatabai might have used one of the tunnels connecting Rafah with the Gaza Strip. In articles posted on the Labour Party's website, Hussein said he had met with politicians and militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and that he had preached the virtues of armed struggle in Gazan mosques. Egyptian security forces last detained Hussein in October, when they intercepted a convoy carrying medical supplies into Gaza and found him and five other Egyptian Islamist opposition politicians traveling into the strip to protest the Egyptian and Israeli blockade of the salient. |
| Posted by:ryuge |