“…on December 1, 1996, [Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman al-] Zawahiri crossed into Russia in a minivan with two of his closest assistants–Mahmoud Hisham al-Hennawi and Ahmed Salama Mabruk. …Traveling without visas, they were detained at a roadblock and taken to the Federal Security Service, which charged them with entering the country illegally. Zawahiri carried four passports, each from a different country and with a different name. The Russians never were able to establish his real identity. …At the trial, Zawahiri posed as a Sudanese merchant. He claimed he was unaware that he had crossed the border illegally. …The judge sentenced Zawahiri and his companions to six months in jail. They had nearly completed the term by the time of the trial, and a few weeks later they were taken to the border of Azerbaijan and sent on their way.”
– Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower, Pages 283-284