The person convicted of the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Nabil Bakr, was released from prison recently, local Egyptian newspapers reported. Bakr, a member of Islamic Jihad, was sentenced to life in prison by a military tribunal in 1982 for his participation in planning the attack on Sadat. Under Egyptian law, a life prison term is 15 years, but Bakr was kept in jail ten years longer because the Egyptian government said he was too dangerous to be released.
The group's leader, Aboud El Zomor, who is also a former ex-intelligence officer, over and over contested the legality of keeping Bakr in prison. El Zomor is believed to be the mastermind behind the Sadat assassination, according to the Egyptian security authorities. According to reports, Bakr and four other members of the Jihad group were released. |