Egypt: Group of activists freed
After two days Egyptian military releases dozens of activists, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch members
Amnesty International says several dozen activists who were detained by the Egyptian military for almost two days have been released.
The rights group on Saturday said it was still trying to establish the whereabouts of Egyptian activists detained in separate incidents Thursday.
The group of several dozen included staff members of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Amnesty worker Said Haddadi, a French national, says the group was handcuffed for an afternoon and evening, and blindfolded for most of the following 24-hour period.
Haddadi says that during an interrogation, the military told him that the group was being held for its own protection.
Also Saturday, a senior Hamas commander returned to the Gaza Strip after breaking out of a Cairo jail during the political upheaval in Egypt, sources in the Palestinian Islamist movement said. They said Ayman Nofal had been arrested in the Egyptian Sinai in early 2008. According to Egyptian media, he had been armed and was suspected of hunting members of the rival Palestinian faction Fatah who had fled from neighbouring Gaza.
Five other Palestinian militants who had been held at Abu Zaabal prison in Cairo made their way back to Gaza this week, using smuggling tunnels to circumvent Egyptian border controls. Abu Zaabal was raided in anti-government protests on Saturday.
Meanwhile, US envoy to Cairo Frank Wisner expressed support of President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday. In a conference in Munich he claimed that the Egyptian president must stay in power for the time being in order to help the transition process.
"President Mubarak's role remains utterly critical in the days ahead while we sort our way toward a future" in which Egypt is peaceful and moderate, and committed to its international obligations, including its peace treaty with Israel, Wisner said in his first public comments about the mission.
However, the US distanced itself from the comments shortly thereafter stating that Wisner had made them as a private citizen and not on behalf of the US government.
Reuters contributed to this report
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