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Egyptian Convict in Canada: I Disagreed with Bin Laden Over wages | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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LONDON, Asharq Al-Awsat – Egyptian activist Mohammad Zaki Mahjoub arrested in Canada in 2000 and detained ever since, said that the Canadian Court of Appeals will, in a matter of days, decide on his request that his deportation to Egypt be stopped: he fears for his life if deported as he is ranked number 20 among those accused of religious violence in Egypt.

Mahjoub (a leader in organizing the Egyptian Islamic group Talaa”I Al-Fateh) told Asharq Al-Awsat that he had worked with Osama Bin Laden for a period of one year and 3 months as supervisor of his agricultural projects in Sudan between years 1992-1993. However, Mahjoub had differed over his salary that had reached a monthly sum of 1500 US dollars at the time. He emphasized that other Islamists were receiving higher salaries from Bin Laden even though they were not actually producing any work while he was working in a field he specialized in and he was content with that job.

He added that despite of his being detained before the attacks in September 2001, the security guards at the Toronto Detention Center call him ”Osama”. Additionally he stated that his life in the Federal prison after September turned into what he described as ”hellish”. He also said that the guards encouraged other prisoners to assault him and sometimes they would call him ”the terrorist”. He stated that he is satisfied in solitary confident where he was placed after the September attacks because he feared for his life from guards who had previously threatened to kill him.