Cairo, Aug 05: The second in command of Egyptian Islamist group al-Jihad, Sarwat Salah Shehata, has been arrested in Iran and will be extradited along with dozens of other Arab prisoners, a lawyer said today. Sentenced twice to the death penalty in absentia by Egyptian courts, Shehata is being held with around 350 Arab and Eislamic militants, lawyer Hani al-Sebai told a news agency. "Egypt recently sent an interior ministry delegation (to Iran) to identify Egyptian prisoners, before making an official request for their extradition," said the London-based Sebai. His claims could not be corroborated by the Egyptian government.

Shehata left Egypt in 1991 for Afghanistan, where he worked with fellow Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's right hand man and number two of the al-Qaeda terror network.


However, the Egyptian lawyer told Arab daily al-Hayat that Shehata is not linked to the group, accused by the United States of carrying out the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

The lawyer insisted that Shehata led a group of Jihad (holy war) fighters who broke away from Zawahri and bin Laden in 1998, but he is on a US list of most wanted Islamic militants, drawn up after the attacks. Bureau Report