(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Militant linked to al Qaeda were among the thousands of prisoners who walked free from Egyptian jails last month during the turmoil triggered by a popular uprising against the president, the vice president said.
Omar Suleiman said the escapees included members of "Jihadist organisations" who had not renounced their ideology or agreed to halt violence, the state news agency reported. He was speaking during a meeting with Egyptian journalists on Tuesday.
Suleiman said the Egyptian intelligence service he has headed for years had put "a lot of effort" into securing the extradition to Egypt of militants from abroad "linked to external leaderships, particularly al Qaeda".
The escapees included prisoners who "had not agreed to the initiative to halt violence and are still convinced that society is godless and this is a great threat", he said. "We need a lot of effort to get them back (to jail)," he said.
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