Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar was a member of the

Egyptian Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ, ar, الجهاد الإسلامي المصري), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad ( ar, الجهاد الإسلامي, links=no) and the Liberation Army for Holy Sites, originally referred to as al-Jihad, and ...

, an Islamist terrorist group active since the 1970s. The ADL dubbed him the "propaganda chief" of the militant organisation. He was one of 14 people subjected to

extraordinary rendition Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored Kidnapping, forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had t ...

by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

prior to the 2001 declaration of a

War on Terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...

Life

His permanent address was on al-Shaikh al-Husari street in

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah'' arz, الجيزة ' ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 ...

.Bergen, Peter. "The Osama bin Laden I Know", 2006. In 1991, he was sentenced ''in absentia'' to three years imprisonment in the al-Jihad case arising from the assassination of

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

. al-Zayat, Montasser, "The Road to al-Qaeda", 2002 However, he fled the country in 1993 when Adil al-Sudani got him a false passport in the name of ''Abdel Raheem Mohammed Hussein'' and bought him an October 18

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

ticket from Nuwaiba to

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, and told him to wait for a phone call at the Jordan River Hotel in

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

. El-Zayyat, Montasser, "The Road to al-Qaeda", 2004. tr. by Ahmed Fakry When he arrived the next day, he received a call from Mahmud al-Deeb who told him to book a flight four days later to Sanaa, Yemen to meet with him. When al-Naggar arrived, he was greeted by

Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death. Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with ...

and his brother Muhammad al-Zawahiri, Ahmad Salamah Mabruk, and Thirwat Shehata, who assured him that al-Jihad took care of its own, and they were glad to see him safe. In 1994, he was asked to travel to Sudan, and was subsequently met by al-Zawahiri, who asked him to oversee civil organisation of al-Jihad. In October of the following year, Zawahiri asked him to instead travel to Yemen to oversee civil operations there; but three months later was told to travel with his fake passport in the name of ''Ahmed Rajab Mohammed'', to take a job as a teacher with the Haramain charity in

Tirana, Albania Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

. He also led the ''Centre for Islamic Heritage''.

al-Ahram ''Al-Ahram'' ( ar, الأهرام; ''The Pyramids''), founded on 5 August 1875, is the most widely circulating Egyptian daily newspaper, and the second oldest after '' al-Waqa'i`al-Masriya'' (''The Egyptian Events'', founded 1828). It is majori ...

Military trial for bombing suspects
, November 5–11, 1998 Following the 1996 rise of the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

government in Afghanistan, al-Naggar tried to link al-Jihad to the new government, noting their shared ideals.

Capture, trials, execution

He was sentenced in death

in absentia is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent". may also refer to: * Award in absentia * Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body * Election in absen ...

in an Egyptian military court on October 15, 1997, for the crime of membership in al-Jihad, and possession of weapons.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

Black Hole: The 1995 and 1998 Renditions
/ref> He was ostensibly linked to the 1995 plot to blow up the Khan el-Khalili market, as well as the assassination of Speaker of Parliament

Rifaat el-Mahgoub Rifat (also transliterated as Rifaat, ar, رفعت, , a conjugated form of the Arabic verb رفع with the meaning "lifted", "elated", "joyous") is a masculine name. Variants also include Refat, Rafat, Refaat, etc. Notable people with the name in ...

in October 1990.

Victoria Advocate ''The Victoria Advocate'' is a daily newspaper independently published in Victoria, Texas. It is the second-oldest paper in Texas and the oldest west of the Colorado River, dating back to May 8, 1846, following the Battle of Palo Alto during the ...

Bombings connect to mysterious arrests
August 13, 1998 The trial was condemned as "unfair" by

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

Ahmed Ibrahim al-Naggar
, February 29, 2000 In 1998, Bary asked al-Naggar to claim asylum in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, so he could help convince Hani Sibai to support the Algerian

GIA ''Gia'' is a 1998 American biographical drama television film about the life and times of one of the first supermodels, Gia Carangi. The film stars Angelina Jolie as Gia and Faye Dunaway as Wilhelmina Cooper, with Mercedes Ruehl and Elizabeth M ...

in media communiques. He was arrested on July 2, 1998, as he stepped off the plane in Cairo, having been deported from Albania with the help of the

. His wife was also arrested. He was tried in the 1999

Returnees from Albania The case of the Returnees from Albania was a massive criminal trial in an Egyptian military court from February to April 1999. The trial is one of the principal sources of information about Sunni terrorist groups in the 1990s, especially al-Gama'a ...

trial at which he was defended by

Montasser el-Zayat Montasser el-Zayat () or Muntasir al-Zayyat ( ar, منتصر الزيات ') (born 1956) is an Egyptian lawyer and author whose former clients, according to press reports, included Ayman al-Zawahiri, since 2011 the leader of al-Qaeda, the terrori ...

. He was tortured for nine months; locked in a room with water up to his knees 24 hours a day. When taken to SSI headquarters in Lazughli Square and questioned by Captain Yasir Azzulddin, his hands and feet were tied, as interrogators applied electric shocks to his nipples and penis. Under torture, al-Naggar admitted that al-Jihad had acquired

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The sk ...

from an unnamed East Asian country for $3,695.Begley, Sharon.

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

, "The history of weaponized anthrax suggests that investigators have no shortage of suspects in the new bio-attacks" He later claimed his confessions were only a result of this torture. He was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment. In November, he was transferred to

Tora Prison Tora Prison ( arz, سجن طره '; ) is an Egyptian prison complex for criminal and political detainees, located in Tora, Egypt. The complex is situated in front of the Tora El Balad metro station. The main buildings in the Tora Prison complex a ...

, where Amnesty noted he was at less risk of torture or sudden execution.

Further information
November 12, 1998 Together with the other three returnees brought from Tirana, his capture and torture were listed as the main reasons for the

1998 United States embassy bombings The 1998 United States embassy bombings were attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998. More than 200 people were killed in nearly simultaneous truck bomb explosions in two East African cities, one at the United States Embassy in Dar es Salaam, ...

. He was hanged on February 23, 2000, at al-Isti'naf prison, due to the earlier death sentence levied against him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naggar, Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar Year of birth missing 2000 deaths People executed by Egypt by hanging Egyptian Islamic Jihad Egyptian torture victims People subject to extraordinary rendition by the United States People imprisoned on charges of terrorism Executed Egyptian people 20th-century executions by Egypt