Threats to kill Egypt's envoy

2005-07-06 17:05

Baghdad - Kidnappers of Egypt's top diplomat here threatened to kill him because Egypt has allied with "the Jews and Christians", according to a statement posted on Wednesday on a website associated with al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The statement said al-Qaeda's religious court had decided to hand over Ihab al-Sherif, who was seized in Baghdad on Saturday, to its fighters "to carry out the punishment of apostasy against him."

Under Islam, apostasy, or changing religion, is punishable by death.

"The sharia court of the al-Qaeda in Iraq organisation has decided to transfer the apostate ambassador of Egypt, which has allied itself to the Jews and Christians, to the mujahedeen to carry out the punishment of apostasy against him," the statement said.

The statement appeared on the same website which earlier showed photos of al-Sherif's ID cards and also included a speech purportedly by al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi rejecting any moves to end the fight against US and Iraq forces here.

Three days after al-Sherif was seized, gunmen fired at diplomats from Bahrain and Pakistan in what officials suspected were kidnap attempts aimed at isolating Iraq's US-backed government in the Islamic world.

"These embassies are nothing but observation posts to hunt down the foreign mujahedeen by following them, standing in their way and preventing them from communicating with the brothers of jihad and faith in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere," the web statement said.

- AP