Ahmad Salama Mabruk
Encyclopedia
Ahmad Salam Mabruk was the alleged leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad's Azeri cell. He was one of 14 people subjected to extraordinary rendition
by the CIA prior to the 2001 declaration of a War on Terror
.
graduate of Cairo University
, Mabrouk graduated alongside Mustafa Hamza. He then joined the Egyptian army
as a reserve officer, and raised his sons "to obey Allah's commands, in a home where obedience, traveling for the sake of jihad, and perseverance were encouraged".
In 1981, Mabruk was arrested following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat
, and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.
Released in 1988, Mabruk moved to Afghanistan where Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif
was gathering EIJ members. However, al-Sharif was replaced by Ayman al-Zawahiri
as leader of the group in 1991, and the following year Mabruk moved to the Sudan
.
In 1994, Mabruk's 17-year old son Ahmed, as well as the 15-year old son Musab of Mohammed Sharaf, were captured by the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate
and sexually abused. They were blackmail
ed with videotape of the sodomy, until they agreed to act as informants against their fathers' group. Musab went through his father's files and photocopied them for the Egyptians, but the Sudanese intelligence service saw the covert meetings and alerted al-Jihad, recommending that they treat the boys leniently if they confessed. After Tariq Anwar found explosives in Musab's possession, al-Zawahiri convened a Sharia
court, where Musab confessed he had been given the bomb by the Egyptians which he was told to detonate at the next Shura
council meeting. They were each found guilty of "sodomy, treason, and attempted murder", and sentenced to death by firing squad. The trial, and the execution, were filmed and copies of the film were distributed by al-Jihad. The incident "catastrophically undermined" Mabruk's position in the organisation, and when the Sudanese found out about the executions, al-Jihad was ordered to leave the country.
Mabruk ran al-Jihad operations under the front organisation Bavari-C. He was a vocal critic of the group's close connections to Osama bin Laden
, and criticised its leadership for allowing such a close relationship. In 1995 he was sentenced to death in absentia
for plotting to bomb the Khan el-Khalili market
in Cairo
, along with Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar
and Adel Abdel Bary
.
Throughout 1996, he maintained telephone contact with Canadian Mahmoud Jaballah, who was believed to be an al-Jihad organiser. At some point in the year, he traveled to Albania
for several months where he was employed by the Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage. His daughter Mariam married Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah
.
- both carrying false passports - accompanied Ayman al-Zawahiri
on a trip to Chechnya
, where they hoped to re-establish the faltering al-Jihad. Their leader was traveling under the name Abdullah Imam Mohammed Amin, and trading on his medical credentials for legitimacy. The group switched vehicles three times, but were arrested within hours of entering Russian territory and spent five months in a Makhachkala
prison awaiting trial. The trio pled innocence, maintaining their disguise and having other al-Jihad members from Bavari-C send the Russian authorities pleas for leniency for their "merchant" colleagues who had been wrongly arrested; and Russian Member of Parliament Nadyr Khachiliev echoed the pleas for their speedy release as al-Jihad members Ibrahim Eidarous and Tharwat Salah Shehata traveled to Dagestan
to plead for their release. Shehata received permission to visit the prisoners, and is believed to have smuggled them $3000 which was later confiscated from their cell, and to have given them a letter which the Russians didn't bother to translate.
In April 1997, they were sentenced to six months, and were subsequently released a month later and ran off without paying their court-appointed attorney Abulkhalik Abdusalamov his $1,800 legal fee citing their "poverty". Shehata was sent on to Chechnya, where he met with Ibn Khattab. Zawahiri and Mabruk accompanied al-Hennawi to Baku, Azerbaijan where he'd managed to secure himself a position.
In June 1998, tired of Mabruk's criticisms of his relationship with Bin Laden, al-Zawahiri allegedly banished him from al-Jihad's central operations. He subsequently remained in Azerbaijan when Zawahiri left, and set up his own militant cell under the Bavari-C name, replacing Eidarous as the regional commander, after his transfer to London.
that a rendez-vous between Ihab Saqr
and an Iranian MOIS official was planned in Baku, Azerbaijan. Without a bureau in Azerbaijan, they contacted the American CIA, who allowed a Canadian-raised Mossad agent to unofficially tag along as seven or eight CIA officers based in Frankfurt
oversaw a local police raid on the Baku hotelroom on August 20.
When the Azeri police received confirmation that Saqr was in his hotelroom drinking coffee with others, they stormed the room grabbing all three people they found present and brought them still barefoot to the police station. It was now realised that the Iranian official hadn't yet shown up, and they had instead arrested Saqr, as well as Mabruk and Essam Marzouk
. They were brought to the police station, where the Mossad agent says the police "beat the crap out of them". His laptop computer was seized, and yielded information on an Albania
n cell, leading to a raid which saw five more arrested and extradited to Egypt. It also ostensibly confirmed the identity of more than a hundred others who were, or had been, arrested based on their links to the group.
An alternative telling of his arrest suggests that he had been arrested outside a Baku restaurant after American authorities had been tipped off by a informant
inside al-Jihad.
, he was instead sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment at the Huckstep Military Court.
While in prison, he began to lead a militant al-Marj group in the Abu Zabal prison camp. In the summer of 2004, he used this position to denounce an attempt by Nabil Na'im to preach that violence was counter-productive to jihad. That July, it was announced that his son Ibrahim, who had worked as an "educator" close to al-Jihad, had been killed in a Predator drone airstrike in the North West Frontier Province that had killed Midhat Mursi
.
In December 2007, al-Zawahiri announced he would take questions from the public and attempt to answer as many as he could. The 846th question asked if he knew whether it was true that Mabruk had been arrested while attempting to purchase red arsenic
.
The following year, Zawahiri mentioned Mabruk as one of those leading the campaign to protest unfair treatment by Egyptian prison authorities who had neglected the medical needs of imprisoned militants.
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
by the CIA prior to the 2001 declaration of a War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
.
Life
A computer scienceComputer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
graduate of Cairo University
Cairo University
Cairo University is a public university located in Giza, Egypt.The university was founded on December 21, 1908, as the result of an effort to establish a national center for educational thought...
, Mabrouk graduated alongside Mustafa Hamza. He then joined the Egyptian army
Egyptian Army
The Egyptian Army is the largest service branch within the Egyptian Armed Forces and holds power in the current Egyptian government. It is estimated to number around 379,000, in addition to 479,000 reservists for a total of 858,000 strong. The modern army was created in the 1820s, and during the...
as a reserve officer, and raised his sons "to obey Allah's commands, in a home where obedience, traveling for the sake of jihad, and perseverance were encouraged".
In 1981, Mabruk was arrested following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
, and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.
Released in 1988, Mabruk moved to Afghanistan where Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif
Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif
Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, , aka "Dr. Fadl" and Abd Al-Qader Bin 'Abd Al-'Aziz, has been described as a "major" figure "in the global jihad movement." He is said to be "one of Ayman Al-Zawahiri's oldest associates, and his book al-'Umda fi I'dad al-'Udda , was used as a jihad manual in Al-Qaeda...
was gathering EIJ members. However, al-Sharif was replaced by Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
as leader of the group in 1991, and the following year Mabruk moved to the Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
.
In 1994, Mabruk's 17-year old son Ahmed, as well as the 15-year old son Musab of Mohammed Sharaf, were captured by the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate
Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate
The General Intelligence Services , often called the Mukhabarat , is an Egyptian intelligence agency responsible for providing national security intelligence, both domestically and transnationally, with a counter-terrorism focus....
and sexually abused. They were blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ed with videotape of the sodomy, until they agreed to act as informants against their fathers' group. Musab went through his father's files and photocopied them for the Egyptians, but the Sudanese intelligence service saw the covert meetings and alerted al-Jihad, recommending that they treat the boys leniently if they confessed. After Tariq Anwar found explosives in Musab's possession, al-Zawahiri convened a Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
court, where Musab confessed he had been given the bomb by the Egyptians which he was told to detonate at the next Shura
Shura
Shura is an Arabic word for "consultation". The Quran and Muhammad encourage Muslims to decide their affairs in consultation with those who will be affected by that decision....
council meeting. They were each found guilty of "sodomy, treason, and attempted murder", and sentenced to death by firing squad. The trial, and the execution, were filmed and copies of the film were distributed by al-Jihad. The incident "catastrophically undermined" Mabruk's position in the organisation, and when the Sudanese found out about the executions, al-Jihad was ordered to leave the country.
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, and criticised its leadership for allowing such a close relationship. In 1995 he was sentenced to death in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
for plotting to bomb the Khan el-Khalili market
Khan el-Khalili
thumb|200px|An old chandeliers shop at Khan el-KhaliliKhan el-Khalili is a major souk in the Islamic district of Cairo. The bazaar district is one of Cairo's main attractions for tourists and Egyptians alike.-History:...
in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, along with Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar
Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar
Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar was a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. The Jewish lobby group ADL dubbed him the "propaganda chief" of the militant organisation...
and Adel Abdel Bary
Adel Abdel Bary
Adel Mohammed Abd Almagid Abdel Bary is an Egyptian militant who, together with fellow Egyptian Ibrahim Hussein Abdel Hadi Eidarous until the latter's death, have been in the custody of the United Kingdom since 1999, fighting extradition to the United States, where they are wanted in connection...
.
Throughout 1996, he maintained telephone contact with Canadian Mahmoud Jaballah, who was believed to be an al-Jihad organiser. At some point in the year, he traveled to Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
for several months where he was employed by the Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage. His daughter Mariam married Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah
Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah is an Egyptian national wanted by the United States for his part in the 1998 American embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and especially Nairobi, Kenya...
.
Arrest and imprisonment in Russia
On December 1, 1996, Mabruk and Mahmud Hisham al-HennawiMahmud Hisham al-Hennawi
Mahmud Hisham al-Hennawi , also known by his kunya Abu Sahl, was an Islamic militant with ties to the Egyptian Islamic Jihad who was killed in Chechnya in 2005.-Early life:...
- both carrying false passports - accompanied Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
on a trip to Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
, where they hoped to re-establish the faltering al-Jihad. Their leader was traveling under the name Abdullah Imam Mohammed Amin, and trading on his medical credentials for legitimacy. The group switched vehicles three times, but were arrested within hours of entering Russian territory and spent five months in a Makhachkala
Makhachkala
-Twin towns/sister cities:Makhachkala is twinned with: Sfax, Tunisia Siping, China Spokane, United States Vladikavkaz, Russia Yalova, Turkey Ndola, Zambia-See also:*...
prison awaiting trial. The trio pled innocence, maintaining their disguise and having other al-Jihad members from Bavari-C send the Russian authorities pleas for leniency for their "merchant" colleagues who had been wrongly arrested; and Russian Member of Parliament Nadyr Khachiliev echoed the pleas for their speedy release as al-Jihad members Ibrahim Eidarous and Tharwat Salah Shehata traveled to Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
to plead for their release. Shehata received permission to visit the prisoners, and is believed to have smuggled them $3000 which was later confiscated from their cell, and to have given them a letter which the Russians didn't bother to translate.
In April 1997, they were sentenced to six months, and were subsequently released a month later and ran off without paying their court-appointed attorney Abulkhalik Abdusalamov his $1,800 legal fee citing their "poverty". Shehata was sent on to Chechnya, where he met with Ibn Khattab. Zawahiri and Mabruk accompanied al-Hennawi to Baku, Azerbaijan where he'd managed to secure himself a position.
In June 1998, tired of Mabruk's criticisms of his relationship with Bin Laden, al-Zawahiri allegedly banished him from al-Jihad's central operations. He subsequently remained in Azerbaijan when Zawahiri left, and set up his own militant cell under the Bavari-C name, replacing Eidarous as the regional commander, after his transfer to London.
1998 arrest in Azerbaijan
In August 1998, a wiretapped phonecall tipped off the Israeli MossadMossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
that a rendez-vous between Ihab Saqr
Ihab Saqr
A member of the Vanguards of Conquest, Ihab Abdallah Saqr was believed to have coordinated the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. and was a high-priority target for the CIA when he was captured in Baku, Azerbaijan...
and an Iranian MOIS official was planned in Baku, Azerbaijan. Without a bureau in Azerbaijan, they contacted the American CIA, who allowed a Canadian-raised Mossad agent to unofficially tag along as seven or eight CIA officers based in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
oversaw a local police raid on the Baku hotelroom on August 20.
When the Azeri police received confirmation that Saqr was in his hotelroom drinking coffee with others, they stormed the room grabbing all three people they found present and brought them still barefoot to the police station. It was now realised that the Iranian official hadn't yet shown up, and they had instead arrested Saqr, as well as Mabruk and Essam Marzouk
Essam Marzouk
An Egyptian resident of British Columbia, Essam Hafez Mohammed Marzouk arrived in Vancouver, Canada in 1993 as a refugee fleeing persecution in Pakistan...
. They were brought to the police station, where the Mossad agent says the police "beat the crap out of them". His laptop computer was seized, and yielded information on an Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
n cell, leading to a raid which saw five more arrested and extradited to Egypt. It also ostensibly confirmed the identity of more than a hundred others who were, or had been, arrested based on their links to the group.
An alternative telling of his arrest suggests that he had been arrested outside a Baku restaurant after American authorities had been tipped off by a informant
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
inside al-Jihad.
Imprisonment
Under interrogation and alleged torture, Mabruk claimed that al-Jihad had acquired chemical weapons over the past two years and gave up the names and locations of dozens of al-Jihad members. Although previously sentenced to death in absentiaIn absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
, he was instead sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment at the Huckstep Military Court.
While in prison, he began to lead a militant al-Marj group in the Abu Zabal prison camp. In the summer of 2004, he used this position to denounce an attempt by Nabil Na'im to preach that violence was counter-productive to jihad. That July, it was announced that his son Ibrahim, who had worked as an "educator" close to al-Jihad, had been killed in a Predator drone airstrike in the North West Frontier Province that had killed Midhat Mursi
Midhat Mursi
Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, known as Abu Khabab al-Masri was a chemist and alleged top bomb maker for al-Qaeda and part of Osama bin-Laden's inner circle. The United States had a US$5 million bounty on his head. Although reportedly killed in a U.S...
.
In December 2007, al-Zawahiri announced he would take questions from the public and attempt to answer as many as he could. The 846th question asked if he knew whether it was true that Mabruk had been arrested while attempting to purchase red arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
.
The following year, Zawahiri mentioned Mabruk as one of those leading the campaign to protest unfair treatment by Egyptian prison authorities who had neglected the medical needs of imprisoned militants.