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Qatar, Turkey refuse to hand over 53 Egyptian to Sisi

March 23, 2017 at 11:11 am

Egypt’s Al-Youm Al-Sabe newspaper reported that Qatar and Turkey informed Egypt of their refusal to hand over 53 alleged Brotherhood leaders and members for prosecution. The newspaper revealed the names of some of these figures, including the chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi.

The newspaper, which is closely linked to the regime of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who came to power after a bloody coup in 2013, quoted yesterday “senior level sources” confirming that the Turkish and Qatari authorities informed Egypt in January that they had rejected Cairo’s request to hand over 53 alleged Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members of the international organisation located in their countries for prosecution.

Egyptian Scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi

Egyptian Scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi

The newspaper claimed that these individuals committed terrorist acts against the state or incited violence after the fall of the Brotherhood’s rule under President Mohamed Morsi in the regime-titled “June 30 Revolution”. The newspaper’s sources also claimed that all of these opposition members are members of the Muslim Brotherhood, despite their diverse intellectual and political affiliations.

Read: The consequences of describing the Brotherhood as terrorists

The unnamed sources said that the international cooperation office in the Ministry of Justice sent messages, via diplomatic channels, to nearly 80 foreign countries, including Qatar and Turkey, requesting judicial assistance and the handing over suspects located in their countries in accordance with international and bilateral agreements made with Egypt.

The sources noted that some countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia handed over a number of these suspects located in their country, while seven countries did not reply as to whether or not they would hand those located in their countries over.

Some of those requested to be handed over are Tarek Al-Zumar, secretary-general of the Building and Development Party, Yehia Hamed, former Minister of investment in Hesham Qandil’s pre-coup government, Mohammad Al-Jawadi, who is classified as a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood alliance, the famously anti-Sisi religious leader Sheikh Wagdy Ghoneim and Waleed Sharabi, spokesman for the “Coalition of Judges for Egypt”.

The list also included prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader, Mahmoud Ezzat, Gamal Abdel Sattar, a former University of Al-Azhar professor and the head of the Sunni Scholars Association, journalist Wael Qandil, Al Jazeera writer and political analyst Mohammed Al-Quddusi, director of news for Al Jazeera Ibrahim Mohammed Hilal as well as Al Jazeera presenter Ahmad Mansour.