Hani al-Sibai

Who is Hani al-Sibai?

Hani al-Sibai, also known as Hani Mohammed Yusuf al-Siba'i and Hani al-Said al-Siba'i Yusuf is an Islamist Egyptian Sunni scholar and lawyer who lives in London with the status of a political refugee. As a lawyer in Egypt, he was a defense attorney.

It was his defence of Islamists, that got him into trouble with the Egyptian government. Egypt proved in court he was one of the fourteen members of the shura of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Egyptian authorities convicted him in absentia in the case of the Returnees from Albania and sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment. In response, he fled to the United Kingdom where he was later arrested and accused of membership in al-Jihad. However, he remains in London, England as efforts to deport him have failed.

In September 2005, he was one of seven Egyptians whose names were added to the UN 1267 Committee's list of banned individuals. A few days later he was added to the list of Specially Designated Nationals maintained by the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control, as a supporter of al-Qaeda or an allied group.

Al-Sibai is sometimes referred to as "Doctor" or "Shaykh Doctor" Hani al-Sibai, on the strength of a doctorate in "comparative criminal jurisprudence", though his degree is unverifiable. On the same grounds, he is therefore described as a former lawyer. He is the founder and director of the Almaqreze Centre for Historical Studies in London.