Mahmud Hisham al-Hennawi

Mahmud Hisham al-Hennawi (محمود هشام محمد مصطفى الحناوي), also known by his kunya Abu Sahl,

Arrest and imprisonment in Russia On December 1, 1996, al-Hennawi and Ahmad Salama Mabruk - both carrying false passports - accompanied Ayman al-Zawahiri on a trip to Chechnya, where they hoped to re-establish the faltering al-Jihad. Their leader was traveling under the name Abdullah Imam Mohammed Amin, and trading on his medical credentials for legitimacy. The group switched vehicles three times, but were arrested within hours of entering Russian territory and spent five months in a Makhachkala prison awaiting trial. The trio pleaded innocence, maintaining their disguise and having other al-Jihad members from Bavari-C send the Russian authorities pleas for leniency for their "merchant" colleagues who had been wrongly arrested; and Russian Member of Parliament Nadyr Khachiliev echoed the pleas for their speedy release as al-Jihad members Ibrahim Eidarous and Tharwat Salah Shehata traveled to Dagestan to plead for their release. Shehata received permission to visit the prisoners, and is believed to have smuggled them $3000 which was later confiscated from their cell, and to have given them a letter which the Russians didn't bother to translate. Shehata was sent on to Chechnya, where he met with Ibn Khattab.

Returnees from Albania He was convicted in absentia during the 1998 Returnees from Albania trial in Egypt, and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.

His son Hamza was subsequently arrested by Egyptian authorities.

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