Morsy to push Obama for release of 1993 US terror cleric

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy has said he will urge US President Barack Obama to free the blind sheikh jailed for the 1993 World Trade Centre attack.President Morsy told CNN in an interview aired Monday that he was hoping to travel to the United States before the end of March, and he planned to raise the case of Omar Abdul Rahman, serving a life sentence in a US prison.There is no set date yet, but it will most likely be before the end of the first quarter of this year, President Morsy said.It will be the Islamist leaders first visit to the United States since he was elected last year after the overthrow of long-time Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.Relations between the United States and its key regional ally, Egypt, have been complicated since his election with Washington treading carefully amid a series of controversial and widely criticised moves by Mr Morsy.President Morsy repeated his view of the blind sheikh saying: I want him to be free. But he added: I respect the law. And the rule of law in Egypt and the United States.If the ailing and ageing Abdul Rahman cannot be freed, then President Morsy suggested he should be allowed visitation rights with his family and children.Humane needsIs there a chance for him to be freed? I wish this, Mr Morsy said, but if not then Egypts relationship with America deserves that these issues be reviewed, if that is okay according to the law.If it isnt possible, and I hope that it is possible, if it wasnt possible, then these humane aspects need to be taken into account, for him to be in a humane prison, to be able to have visitors, to be able to have company.Abdul Rahman, the spiritual leader of the radical Jamaa Islamiya group, was convicted in 1995 for his role in the attack, in which six people were killed and hundreds injured when a truck bomb was detonated in the buildings garage.