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Islamists protest in Cairo, demanding release of cleric held in US

Arab World Materials 12 August 2011 22:11 (UTC +04:00)

Scores of Egyptian Islamists protested Friday outside the US embassy in Cairo against the continuing imprisonment of militant Muslim cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, DPA reported.

They vowed not to stop their "open-ended" protest until they got an official promise from US authorities to release Abdel-Rahman.

"We will not end our sit-in until my father is freed or we get an official letter from the US that he will be released," Ibrahim, the son of the 74-year-old cleric, was quoted as saying by the website of official Egyptian radio and television.

He demanded the ruling military council in Egypt request the US to release him.

Abdel-Rahman is currently serving a life sentence in the United States after having been convicted of "seditious conspiracy" in connection with the World Trade Center 1993 bombings.

"Seditious conspiracy" requires only that a crime be planned.

Adel-Rahman's loyalists allege the US detained him to please former Egyptian president Hosny Mubarak who was a key ally of Washington.

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