Mamdouh Ismail

He was arrested himself on 29 March 2007[1] and is now accused[2][3] of complicity in an "Egyptian project" of al-Qaeda, taking his orders from Ayman al-Zawahiri via Muhammad Khalil al-Hukaymah (al-Qaeda propaganda chief) and Hani al-Sibai (publicist for Egyptian Islamic Jihad).

It was Mamdouh Ismail who then started the false rumour that Abu Ayyub was already in prison in Egypt.

[9] Ismael has publicly objected to a reconciliation between Cairo and Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

[7] In 1999 he was refused permission to establish an Islamist political party (called Hizb ash-Shari'a) with the help of fellow lawyer Muntasir al-Zayyat.

[3] Ismael was one of the hundreds who were rounded up following the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat in 1981; he served three years.