APPREHENDED
- Full name: Ibrahim Yahya Abdelfattah Azab
- Pseudonym: N/a
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Egypt
- Affiliation: fmr Askar and Azab Network [AAN]
Ibrahim Azab (°1990) is a former pharmacy student and Islamist militant from the Egyptian city of Mansoura who first became involved with terrorism in the late 2000s when he joined the so-called Mansoura Jihad Cell [MJC].1 Azab was arrested when the authorities cracked down on the MJC in October 2009.2 He was later sentenced to death.3
Azab was freed from prison by the interim military authorities in March 2011.4 Upon his release, he got into contact with his former MJC associates and helped them take care of their families.5 Azab soon became drawn to Salafi activism that was sweeping Egypt in the wake of the 2011 revolution. He took part in many demonstrations and often gave medical first aid to protesters wounded in clashes with security forces.6 After the army deposed Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, Azab participated in the massive sit-in protests by Islamists and worked at a makeshift field hospital at the Raba’a al-Adawiya protest site in Cairo.7 He sustained injuries during clashes with police in mid-August.8
Azab vowed to avenge the Islamist protesters who died in the security forces’ clampdown on the demonstrations in the summer of 2013.9 He and his acquaintances procured weapons and explosives.10 Azab was approached by radicalized Brotherhood member Khalid Askar who also wanted revenge.11 Despite their ideological differences, they decided to cooperate and set up the Askar and Azab Network [AAN].12 Azab assumed leadership of the AAN’s Salafi cell.13 He and his associates made at least one trip to jihadis based in the North Sinai governorate before returning to Mansoura.14 They made plans to bomb the police headquarters, attack police vehicles and assassinate policemen in the city.15 Askar took part in the Feb. 28, 2014 assassination of a policeman in Mansoura.16
On Mar. 06, Askar and several of his companions were arrested by police as the authorities hunted down of the officer’s killers.17 He was sentenced to die by a court in Mansoura on Jul. 09, 2015.18 The ruling was confirmed by a court of cassation in June 2017.19
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