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

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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