Egypt has referred the case of 83 Egyptians, most of them from the outlawed Islamic Jihad to military courts, reported Al Jazeera satellite channel Saturday night.
AFP said, however, that 80 suspects who allegedly constituted a sleeper cell of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, have been to military prosecutors, according to a decree issued by President Hosni Mubarak.
The group, arrested in May while allegedly preparing operations to disrupt public order, will be investigated by the military prosecutors before charges are filed and a date is set for a trial before a military court.
But an analyst, close to the government, told the station that the timing of the legal procedures is not linked to the anti-terror war led by the US, which has named Al Jihad as a target in the war.
The Egyptian interior ministry said Wednesday the group of "extremists" included two who had completed a course in civil aviation.
A journalist close to Mubarak wrote that the Al Qaeda cell was plotting "large-scale operations in Egypt on different very important targets," adding that the two pilots were trained at the same US institutes attended by an Egyptian who flew into the World Trade Center in New York.
The suspects were reportedly part of a group of 85 pro-Chechen militants, including five Muslim Russians, being interrogated in August on suspicion of belonging to an illegal organization.
The status of the five Russians was not clear after the 80 Egyptians were referred to the military prosecutors.
Al Jazeera said that two of the suspects are from Daghistan and a third is a Yemeni.
The verdicts of military courts cannot be appealed.
Several of bin Laden's close associates are Egyptians, including Ayman Al Zawahri, one of the leaders of the extremist Islamic Jihad group which was responsible for the assassination of president Anwar Sadat in 1981.
Al Qaeda and Al Jihad have lately joined forces in one front – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
