Egypt's prosecutor general called Sunday on the Egyptian Interpol to contact its international counterpart to request the arrest of hard-line Islamist Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya's leading figure Assem Abdel-Maged, a judicial source stated.
The interior ministry received a tip-off confirming that Abdel-Maged left Egyptian territory and is currently in Qatar.
The prosecutor general also asked the foreign ministry to contact its embassies in countries that are signatories to Interpol cooperation agreements, to keep an eye open for Abdel-Maged.
The Qatari embassy to Egypt has been notified to provide a statement on Abdel Maged's presence in Qatar.
Abdel-Maged told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network Sunday that the Egyptian Armed Forces had driven the nation to the "edge of a precipice." He said he expected the situation in Egypt to deteriorate, saying protests "will be what breaks this coup."
Abdel-Maged said the military made a "major mistake" by siding with "religious, political and social minorities," an allusion to Christians and secular-minded Egyptians.
Abdel-Maged has several arrest warrants issued under his name, most notably on charges of inciting murder in the vicinity of Rabaa Al-Adawiya, where a six-week-long pro-Mohamed Morsi camp was situated before police and security forces clamped down on the sit-in, killing and injuring hundreds.
It has yet to be known how Abdel-Maged left the country despite the arrest warrants.
Abdel-Maged, who once shared a prison cell with Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, was jailed for 25 years until 2006 for a role in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat.
Egyptian security officials said Abdel-Maged fled to Qatar via sea, or the border with Libya. Qatar is one of the few Arab states that has been sympathetic to Islamists during and after Morsi's year in power, supplying Egypt with billions of dollars in aid.
