Egypt frees man who ordered Sadat's murder

Egypt has released a leader of the militant group responsible for the assassination of former president Anwar Sadat after nearly 22 years in jail.

Karam Zohdy, 51, one of the leaders of Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Group, was serving a life sentence in a high-security prison for his role in the October 6, 1981 assassination.

Zohdy and the Islamic Group had renounced violence, and Zohdy recently expressed regret for his role in Sadat’s killing.

Interior minister Habib el-Adly decided to release Zohdy because he served his sentence, and because he was suffering from heart problems and diabetes, Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency reported.

According to Egyptian law, a life sentence normally means 25 years behind bars. The prison year, however, is calculated as nine months, meaning that Zohdy was more than four years overdue for a release.

Police officials said Zohdy was released on Thursday and returned to his home town of Minya, 140 miles south of Cairo.

His release comes days before the 22nd anniversary of Sadat’s assassination and the 30th anniversary of Egypt’s last war with Israel.

Under Sadat, the government sought the support of Islamic groups to counter the influence of left-wingers, releasing hundreds of jailed Muslim Brotherhood members and backing a nascent al-Gamaa. But the Brotherhood turned against Sadat and al-Gamaa grew so radical it joined forces with another militant group, Islamic Jihad, to assassinate the president.

Sadat had been condemned by radicals for standing in the way of establishing an Islamic state and for being the first Arab leader to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

Zohdy is among those who ordered the assassination of Sadat.

Egypt has been under emergency law ever since the assassination.

Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya, once Egypt’s largest Islamic militant group, attempted to overthrow the government during the 1990s in bloody campaign that killed more than 1,000 people, mostly militants, tourists and police.

In 1997, al-Gamaa proposed a unilateral ceasefire that came into effect in March 1999.

In a July interview with the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Zohdy said Sadat was a martyr.

He told the paper he regretted his “wrong ijtihad”, or religious opinion, and if he could turn back time, “I would interfere to prevent it”.

It was not clear whether the other Islamic Group leaders would also be released from prison.