Rebel's son not among Chechens deported from Egypt
CAIRO, June 18 (Reuters) - Egypt deported four Chechens to Russia on Thursday but the son of a Chechen rebel leader was not among them, Amnesty International and the man's uncle said.
The rights group expressed concern on Wednesday that 22-year-old Maskhud Abdullaev would be tortured if sent back to Russia. He is the son of Supyan Abdullaev, the leader of an armed Chechen group opposed to Moscow's control of the region.
Maskhud's uncle, Ruslan Abdullaev, told Reuters in Cairo Maskhud and another student, identified by Amnesty as Akhmad Azimov, missed their flight to Moscow because the officer transporting them to the airport drove to the wrong terminal.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is due in Egypt for talks on Tuesday, but Ruslan said he did not believe his nephew's deportation was linked to the visit.
The two students had been asked to buy new tickets for a later flight to Moscow, but did not have enough money, Ruslan said, adding they would probably be deported on Friday.
Speaking via a translator, Ruslan said he feared his nephew would be held hostage to put pressure on his relatives among Chechen rebels to surrender.
"If a father, brother or cousin is in the (Chechen) resistance, the Russian authorities take a relative, a young man, a father, they take him and order the (rebel): 'Hand yourself over, or I'll kill (him),'" Ruslan said.
He added that Maskhud left Chechnya as a child and had nothing to do with the conflict there.
"He never broke the law, in Russia, Chechnya or Egypt. He has nothing to do with those things. He's just a young man studying here," Ruslan said.
The Chechens Egypt is deporting were students at Cairo's al-Azhar University and all claimed refugee status in Azerbaijan before moving to Egypt to study, according to Amnesty. They have not been allowed to fly to Azerbaijan.
Amnesty said about 35 Russian students, mainly from the provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, were arrested in May during a wave of detentions of foreign students at al-Azhar.
A spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency said it had asked the Egyptian government grant it access to the men. (Reporting by Aziz el-Kaissouni and Alastair Sharp; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
The rights group expressed concern on Wednesday that 22-year-old Maskhud Abdullaev would be tortured if sent back to Russia. He is the son of Supyan Abdullaev, the leader of an armed Chechen group opposed to Moscow's control of the region.
Maskhud's uncle, Ruslan Abdullaev, told Reuters in Cairo Maskhud and another student, identified by Amnesty as Akhmad Azimov, missed their flight to Moscow because the officer transporting them to the airport drove to the wrong terminal.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is due in Egypt for talks on Tuesday, but Ruslan said he did not believe his nephew's deportation was linked to the visit.
The two students had been asked to buy new tickets for a later flight to Moscow, but did not have enough money, Ruslan said, adding they would probably be deported on Friday.
Speaking via a translator, Ruslan said he feared his nephew would be held hostage to put pressure on his relatives among Chechen rebels to surrender.
"If a father, brother or cousin is in the (Chechen) resistance, the Russian authorities take a relative, a young man, a father, they take him and order the (rebel): 'Hand yourself over, or I'll kill (him),'" Ruslan said.
He added that Maskhud left Chechnya as a child and had nothing to do with the conflict there.
"He never broke the law, in Russia, Chechnya or Egypt. He has nothing to do with those things. He's just a young man studying here," Ruslan said.
The Chechens Egypt is deporting were students at Cairo's al-Azhar University and all claimed refugee status in Azerbaijan before moving to Egypt to study, according to Amnesty. They have not been allowed to fly to Azerbaijan.
Amnesty said about 35 Russian students, mainly from the provinces of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, were arrested in May during a wave of detentions of foreign students at al-Azhar.
A spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency said it had asked the Egyptian government grant it access to the men. (Reporting by Aziz el-Kaissouni and Alastair Sharp; editing by Andrew Dobbie)
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