Montasser el-Zayat

Montasser el-Zayat (IPA: [monˈtɑsˤeɾ el-, ez- zæjˈjæːt]) or Muntasir al-Zayyat (Arabic: منتصر الزيات Muntaṣir az-Zayyāt) (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 terrorist organization, and al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya.

[1] Following the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat, as a young man, el-Zayat was one of the hundreds of politically active Egyptians who were rounded up.

His former clients are said to have included Ayman al-Zawahiri, since 2011 the leader of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization based in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

[5] On 1 December 2002 the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported[2] that el-Zayat "accused the United States of 'invading the region and imposing its policies — it wants to interfere with our life, and it wants us to modify our religious curriculum.

He was living in exile in Italy when he was allegedly abducted by the CIA's Special Activities Division under the direction of Robert Seldon Lady.