Interpol To Pursue Islamist Leader Assem Abdel-Maged: Official

Interpol has accepted Egyptian authorities’ request to put Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya’s leader, Assem Abdel-Maged on the “red notice” list, assistant to the interior minister Sayed Shafik told Al-Ahram Arabic on Monday.

Red notices are used by Interpol to inform its 190 member states that an arrest warrant has been issued for an individual by a judicial authority in a concerned country.

The court upheld death sentences in absentia on Abdel-Maged and five other Islamist figures last August.

Negotiations between the Egyptian government and Interpol  have been ongoing for three months, during which  Interpol was investigating whether the sentences are “politicised.”

Assem Abdel-Maged faces charges of killing and injuring protesters in the Upper Egyptian city of Assiut during the 30 June protests in 2013 that culminated in Morsi’s ouster three days later.

Abdel-Maged, who authorities say fled to Qatar following Morsi’s ouster, completed a 25-year jail sentence in 2006 for his role in the 1981 assassination of former president Anwar Sadat.

In December 2013, Abdel-Maged appeared on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network to condemn the army, stating that Morsi’s ouster had been “a major mistake” that had driven Egypt to the “edge of a precipice,” and that pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters would reverse the “coup.”

His television appearance prompted Egyptian authorities to ask Interpol for help in tracking him down as Egypt and Qatar do not have a policy of extradition.

Source : Ahram online