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by Emad Mekay CAIRO (Islam Online) - The wife of a leading Egyptian Islamist, Talaat Fouad Kasem, who is believed to have been kidnapped by Egyptian authorities five years ago in Croatia, has appealed to Croatian authorities to help determine her husband's whereabouts. In a letter addressed to Croatian President Stepan Mesic, and obtained by Islam Online, Amany Mahran called on the Croatian president to help her "in finding out the fate of my beloved husband and the truth about the kidnapping." "In the past five years, my family and I had knocked [on] every door. There are many states and hidden powers trying to kill the truth and stop our efforts to find that truth," said Mahran in a letter obtained through her lawyer in Egypt, Muntassier al-Zayat. Mahran said human rights advances, initiated by Mesic, prompted her to renew appeals for help in order to end her five-year search for her husband. Mesic, 66, came to office for a five-year term in February on a platform of enforcing democracy. Kasem, who obtained the name Ebrahim Ezzat through a Danish Court order for his safety, was a prominent member of Egypt's Gamaa Islamia (The Islamic Group). He fled to Denmark in 1990, and later proved to be pivotal in the operations of the Group. He has since been sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian court. Some Islamic activist groups in Egypt started an offensive in 1992 to topple the secular regime of President Hosni Mubarak in order to set up a purist Islamic state. More than 1,200 people have been killed in violent clashes within the country, including dozens of foreign tourists and members of the Christian Coptic minority. Egypt has often demanded the extradition of fugitives in Europe and elsewhere, and has successfully secured the return of several of them from Arab countries under pan-Arab treaties. Egypt is currently pressing for cooperation with Western countries. Fouad's wife blames both the Croatian security forces and the Egyptian security apparatus for the disappearance of her husband. She said her husband disappeared in Zagreb in September 1995 during a visit to Croatia to write a book on Bosnia and Croatia. Mahran said in the letter that her husband was kidnapped, handed over to Egyptian authorities, and sent back to Egypt where his whereabouts are still unknown. She said her lawyers have experienced "nothing but difficulties, harassment, lies and cover up," as they tried to locate her husband in Croatia and Egypt. "The barbaric act of kidnapping my beloved innocent husband has changed the course of our life," said, Mahran, a mother of six. Egypt has stepped up its crackdown on activists after suspected Islamist opponents massacred 56 tourists in a Luxor temple in broad daylight in1997. Security officers in Egypt believe that orders to carry out the massacre came from outside the country, particularly Europe and Afghanistan. Human rights groups estimate there are 16,000 Islamic groups' sympathizers in Egyptian jails. Dozens of suspected activists have fled the country and are now based in Europe, preferring not to go to neighboring Arab countries. Egypt has reinforced its military cooperation with its Arab neighbors. An annual meeting of Arab interior ministers is the major forum for solidifying such cooperation, and it is at this meeting that multilateral and bilateral committees on Islamic activism are set up every year. The Egyptian government and media have strongly criticized other countries, particularly Britain, for sheltering Islamist leaders who advocate, and direct violence, at home. Ayman al-Zawahri, leader of the al-Jihad (Holy War) group, and Rifaai Taha, of the Islamic Group, are now based in Afghanistan where they are thought to have close links with Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born dissident. The United States blames bin Laden for masterminding the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed hundreds of bystanders. |
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