Brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri released on parole

Attorney Khaled al-Masri told The Associated Press that Mohammed Al-Zawahiri is to be placed under house arrest.

According to judge Hussein Farid, the head of the Cairo Criminal Court that released al-Zawahiri, the defendant must show up to court every 45 days and be under police surveillance.

Al-Zawahiri is the brother of Egyptian-born al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the chief of the global terror network.

Mohammed al-Zawahiri was arrested in August 2013, days after security forces stormed the Rabaa sit-in in Cairo by supporters of President Mohammed Morsi, killing over 1000.

He led a Salafi group and was reportedly a close ally of Morsi.

Although he was subsequently acquitted in one terrorism-related case, he remained in detention for a second case in which he was never formally charged but was accused of forming a terrorist organisation.