Egypt: Tarek Al-Zumar on Terror List for 3rd Time

Tarek al-Zumar, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Building and Development Party. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Tarek al-Zumar, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Building and Development Party. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Egypt: Tarek Al-Zumar on Terror List for 3rd Time

Tarek al-Zumar, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Building and Development Party. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Tarek al-Zumar, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Building and Development Party. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Court of Cassation, the highest judicial body in Egypt, upheld on Thursday a court ruling that enlists the former head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Building and Development Party, fugitive Tarek al-Zumar, and 318 other defendants of the Sinai insurgency case, on the list of terrorist entities.

Zumar is accused of playing a pivotal role in the ISIS-affiliated “Wilayat Sinai”, providing financial support to the group from outside Egypt.

On Thursday, the Court rejected the defendants' appeal to a Cairo Criminal Court ruling, which enlisted the 319 defendants on the terror list.

“The Court of Cassation ruling is final and cannot be appealed,” judicial sources said.

The “Wilayat Sinai” case, which involves 555 suspected terrorists, is linked to attacks carried out by the terrorist organization in North Sinai.

In is the third time Egypt places the name of Zumar on its terrorist list.

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Zumar to death last September in the case known in the media as "Rabaa sit-in dispersal."

In March, an Egyptian court placed Zumar and 319 people on a terrorist list for their links to the "Second Wilayat Sinai."

Last November, the Cairo Criminal Court again placed his name among 164 names on Egypt's terror list, including Mohammed Shawki al-Islambouli, another fugitive in Turkey, Assem Abdelmajid, who is in Qatar, and others.

Zumar is included in a list of 59 terrorists announced by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in June after the four countries cut relations with Qatar over its support for terrorism.

He is being tried in absentia in Egypt.

Zumar was imprisoned in 1984, along with his cousin Abboud al-Zumar, over accusations of assassinating former Egyptian president Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat.



ISIS Kills Five Kurdish Fighters in Eastern Syria

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
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ISIS Kills Five Kurdish Fighters in Eastern Syria

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)

The ISIS militant group said on Monday it killed five Kurdish fighters in an attack in eastern Syria's Deir Ezzor, according to the group's news agency.

The spokesperson for Syria's Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces Farhad Shami confirmed to Reuters that five members were killed in the attack which he described as "one of deadliest" against the group in a while.

Deir Ezzor city was captured by the ISIS group in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.

Former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called “caliphate” over a quarter of Syria and Iraq in 2014 before he was killed in a raid by US special forces in northwest Syria in 2019 as the group collapsed.

It has been recently trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia.