Sometime at the end of February 2004, six Egyptians, alleged militants who had spent several years in exile in Yemen, the last several in official custody, were surreptitiously ferried from Sanaa to Cairo, very much against their will. Among them was Sayyid Imam `Abd al-`Aziz al-Sharif, formerly a leader of Egypt’s al-Jihad al-Islami, a group that had been responsible for numerous acts of political violence.