Egypt releases brother of al-Qaeda's Zawahiri

The brother of al-Qaeda's second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri was released in Egypt on Thursday after a decade in jail on charges of conspiring against the government, a lawyer representing him said.

Mohammad al-Zawahiri, a member of the Islamic Jihad group, was sentenced in absentia in Egypt in 1998, his lawyer Nizar Ghurab said. He was extradited from the United Arab Emirates in 1999 and has been in jail ever since, he said. The Interior Ministry ordered his release along with dozens of political detainees on Wednesday in line with the orders from the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to release political detainees, security sources said. (Reuters)