Returnees from Albania

Documentation and terminology

The documents speak of "the Muslim group" or "the Muslim organization", meaning al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya as it was at that time. Most of al-Gama'a later renounced violence, but a violent residue called Islamic Jihad remained; that group was later known as Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) to distinguish it from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The remnants of EIJ and at least one person in the violent fugitive component of Gama'a (namely Mohammad Hasan Khalil al-Hakim) have since merged with al-Qaeda.

Reportage of events in the early 1990s mentions one more group, or rather one more name for some of the same people: Vanguards of Conquest. That was the faction of EIJ that was led by al-Zawahiri after the capture and sentencing of 'Abbud al-Zumar, the first emir of EIJ.

The charges

Broadly, the aim of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya was to bring about the destruction of the Egyptian government, followed by its replacement with a sharia-based Islamist regime. To get there, the plan was to kill and intimidate government members, destroy the Egyptian tourism industry, and create fear and distrust in the Egyptian population. In more detail, the trial addressed

• several bombings of banks
• the 1990 assassination of the chairman of the Egyptian parliament Dr. Rif'at al-Mahjub
• the 1993 assassination attempt of Interior Minister Abdul Halim Moussa, which killed four others
• the 1993 assassination attempt against Prime Minister Atef Sedki, in which a child was killed
• the 1994 assassination of Major General Ra'uf Khayrat (assistant director of the SSIS) in Cairo
• the 1995 assassination of Egyptian attaché Ahmed Alaa Nazmi in Switzerland
• the 1995 assassination attempt against President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa (26 June; EIJ claim responsibility)
• the 1995 bombing of Egypt's embassy in Pakistan, killing 15 people; an intended simultaneous mass murder of tourists at Khan al-Khalili did not materialize.
• the 1997 massacre of tourists at Luxor

The accused

Twenty were acquitted, nine sentenced to death (all in absentia), 11 to life imprisonment, and 67 were given sentences up to 25 years.

The trial concluded that the "constituent assembly" of al-Gama'a contained these fifteen names.

Arrested and charged

The returnees themselves were around 14 in number. About 12 were snatched in Albania, one in Sofia, and one in Baku. One other was killed during the Tirana roundup, which arrested four and occurred in July 1998. The returnees include:

Funding and travel

Ahmad al-Naggar's controversial confession says that the money involved was not great and that it basically "came from Usama bin Ladin". But how exactly the agents in Albania got hold of money is not so simple. It seems probable that one or more Sunni terrorist charities were involved; both al-Haramain Foundation and Global Relief Foundation had branches in Tirana, and a third charity front, Benevolence International Foundation, had an office in Baku. (Al-Naggar himself held a low-paid job in Tirana as a teacher of Arabic for the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, but that group was not accused nor incriminated in any way in the Returnees affair. On the contrary, al-Naggar was expected to get a job in Albania and give 10% of his wages to the terrorist group of which he himself was a member.)

References

References

1. Shay, Shaul. "Islamic Terror in the Balkans", p. 101
2. [http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=4373 MIPT profile] of the "International Justice Group", an alias of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya at that time
3. [http://www.metransparent.com/texts/interrogation_minutes_najjar_to_qaida_1.htm Transcript of part of al-Naggar's testimony], part 1 of 6, ''Middle East Transparent''
4. [http://www.metransparent.com/texts/interrogation_minutes_najjar_to_qaida_2.htm Transcript of part of al-Naggar's testimony] {{Webarchive. link. (2007-04-23 , part 2 of 6, ''Middle East Transparent'')
5. [http://www.metransparent.com/texts/interrogation_minutes_najjar_to_qaida_3.htm Transcript of part of al-Naggar's testimony] {{Webarchive. link. (2007-04-21 , part 3 of 6, ''Middle East Transparent'')
6. [http://www.metransparent.com/texts/interrogation_minutes_najjar_to_qaida_4.htm Transcript of part of al-Naggar's testimony] {{Webarchive. link. (2007-04-23 , part 4 of 6, ''Middle East Transparent'')
7. [http://www.metransparent.com/texts/interrogation_minutes_najjar_to_qaida_5.htm Transcript of part of al-Naggar's testimony] {{Webarchive. link. (2007-03-31 , part 5 of 6, ''Middle East Transparent'')
8. [http://www.metransparent.com/texts/interrogation_minutes_najjar_to_qaida_6.htm Transcript of part of al-Naggar's testimony] {{Webarchive. link. (2007-04-01 , part 6 of 6, ''Middle East Transparent'')
9. [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/556/11war3.htm Egypt's most wanted] {{webarchive. link. (2013-06-11 , al-Ahram Weekly, 18 October 2001)
10. [http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sdn/sdnlist.txt SDN and Specially Designated Global Terrorist list], [[United States Department of the Treasury]]
11. [https://www.un.org/Docs/sc/committees/1267/tablelist.htm UN list of affiliates of al-Qaeda and the Taliban]
12. [https://www.foxnews.com/story/top-al-qaeda-ideolgue-and-zawahiris-brother-to-denounce-violence Top Al Qaeda Ideolgue and Zawahiri's Brother to Denounce Violence], [[Associated Press. AP]], 20 April 2007
13. [http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rsd/rsddocview.htm?tbl=RSDCOI&id=3f7d4d90e UNHCR information on various wanted Egyptians], originally from the Government of Canada
14. [http://www.almaqreze.com/bayanat/artcl012.html Martyrdom of Hisham al-Hanawi (etc.)], ''al-Maqreze Center for Historical Studies'' (=Hani al-Siba'i), in Arabic, 17 April 2005
15. [https://www.almotamar.net/news/46308.htm Yemeni press report] on the death of Ahmed Dewidar, in Arabic
16. [https://almotamar.net/en/2966.htm Reuters report] on the death of Ahmed Dewidar
17. [[Jane Mayer. Mayer, Jane]], "[[The Dark Side (book). The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals]]", 2008. p. 114
18. [[Al-Sharq al-Awsat]], [https://www.fas.org/irp/news/1999/03/990306-cairo-4.htm Returnees from Albania case report ends], March 9, 1999
19. Shephard, Michelle. (2008). "Guantanamo's Child". [[John Wiley & Sons]].
20. Nasrawi, Salah. [[Chicago Sun-Times]], "Key bin Laden aide wrote terror manual", November 17, 2001
21. Asharq al-Awsat, [http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=8958 Yemen deports Jihad leader's daughter to Egypt], May 14, 2007