Egyptian Military Court clears Zawahiri Brother

An Egyptian military court on Monday acquitted Mohammed al-Zawahiri, the brother of al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman, overturning a death sentence in a new trial, his lawyer and his son said.

The court also acquitted Mohammed Islambouli, whose Islamist brother Khaled had assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981, they said. They had been convicted for planning militant attacks.

“Thank God, he was found innocent,” Zawahiri’s son Abdelrahman told AFP by telephone after the verdict.

“We expect him to be released in the next few days,” his lawyer Kamel Mandur said.

In 1998, Zawahiri and Islambouli were sentenced on charges of undergoing military training in Albania and planning military operations in Egypt.