Ayman Ghani (Ikhwani Militant, Egypt)

• Full name: Ayman Ahmed Abdel Ghani Hassanein
• Pseudonym: N/a
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Turkey
• Affiliation: Helwan Brigades [KH]

Ayman Ghani (°1964) is a long-time activist of the Muslim Brotherhood and militant from Qahira’s Nassr City suburb. He is the son-in-law of senior Brotherhood leader Khairat el-Shater.¹ In 2006, Ghani was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the Azhar Militias.²

Following the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Ghani became the deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s students department and the youth secretary of the movement’s Freedom and Justice Party [FJP].³ In the summer of 2013, he rallied young supporters of the Brotherhood and helped organize the massive sit-in protests in the Egyptian capital after the army deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.⁴ As the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood intensified, Ghani fled to Turkey.⁵ From exile, he continued rallying Islamist youths and encouraged attacks against Egyptian security forces. At one point, Ghani reportedly urged jihad against the Egyptian authorities.⁶ He was one of the key figures behind the 2014 riots of Azhar University’s Islamist student section.⁷

From Turkey, Ghani helped set up the Helwan Brigades [KH; Kataeb Helwan] in the spring of 2014.⁸ He supervised the activities of the outfit during its brief existence.⁹ The KH was rolled up by the authorities in late 2014 and 2015.¹⁰ Although the Egyptian government has issued several arrest warrants for him, Ghani remains free in Turkey.¹¹