Mar 26th, 2011

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=31319

CAIRO: Egypt’s Attorney-General has announced the release of member of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Dr. Osama Suleiman, after serving two years in state prison.

Suleiman had previously been released from prison in August 2010. He was then charged with money laundering and funding of an illegal political organization and sentenced again to 5-8 years of detention together with other Muslim Brotherhood members, including a Saudi national, in January.

Suleiman’s release comes after the Arab-European Center of Human Rights and International Law (AECHRIL) in Oslo had been calling the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) for a general amnesty regarding a delegation of Egyptian political detainees headed by Khairat al-Shater, MB’s Deputy Chairman released in early March, since February.

Aihan Jaf, Director-General of the AECHRIL, told the MB’s official website that Suleiman had been convicted in an unfair trial marred by endless irregularities, as a means of political harassment aimed to discredit the former government’s opponents.

Since his release, Khairat al-Shater has been busying himself with the organization of a monetary fund to help the Egyptian economy survive the crisis following political unrest.

In related news, Cairo’s Attorney-General also ordered that confiscated funds belonging to members of the MB be returned, on Saturday.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the longest living and most powerful Islamic political party in Egypt. They were banned from political activity since a 1954 government crackdown on their armed wing, following an attempted assassination of former President Gamal Abdel Nasser, which the government at the time blamed on the MB.

Nonetheless, the MB won 88 parliamentary seats in 2005 elections, and  are widely recognized as the strongest political organization of the post-Mubarak era.