[1] He moved to the Sudan, but after an incident involving the sons of Ahmad Salama Mabruk and Mohammed Sharaf, was among the Arabs ordered to leave the country by the government so traveled to China where he again began working as a merchant until he felt Chinese authorities were seeking him, and so moved to Azerbaijan.
[1][2] On December 1, 1996, al-Hennawi and Ahmad Salama Mabruk - both carrying false passports - accompanied Ayman al-Zawahiri on a trip to Chechnya, where they hoped to re-establish the faltering al-Jihad.
Their leader was traveling under the name Abdullah Imam Mohammed Amin, and trading on his medical credentials for legitimacy.
The group switched vehicles three times, but were arrested within hours of entering Russian territory and spent five months in a Makhachkala prison awaiting trial.
Shehata received permission to visit the prisoners, and is believed to have smuggled them $3000 which was later confiscated from their cell, and to have given them a letter which the Russians didn't bother to translate.