Egypt orders release of Brotherhood leader

An Egyptian court yesterday ordered the release of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leader and former government minister Mohamed Ali Bishr, the Anadolu Agency reported.

“Bishr had remained in detention for more than two years after being charged with illicitly communicating with Norway and being involved in an assassination attempt on a judicial official,” a judicial source, who spoke anonymously, told the Anadolu Agency.

Mohamed Al-Damati, a member of Bishr’s defence team, said in a statement that the court’s decision to release his client on parole, along with five others, meant that he would have to spend several hours a day at a local police station for an as-yet unspecified period.

In late 2014, Egyptian prosecutors charged six people, including Bishr and journalist Hassan Al-Qabbani, with “communicating with the Norwegian state with a view to harming Egypt’s political, social and economic standing”.

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The Egyptian Public Prosecution has the right to appeal against the decision, but has not made it yet. The men should now be released or have no charges brought against them, Anadolu said.

Bishr briefly served as negotiator in the Brotherhood’s talks with Egyptian army leaders in the immediate aftermath of the 2013 coup.