A Cyprus court has ordered the detention for eight days of an Egyptian man who admitted hijacking a domestic EgyptAir flight and diverting it to the Mediterranean island by threatening to blow it up with a fake explosives belt
Police told the court in Larnaca that Seif Eldin Mustafa faced possible charges of hijacking, kidnapping people with the aim of taking them to an unknown destination, reckless and threatening behaviour and offences that breach the anti-terror law.
The accused did not speak in court, but as he left the courthouse in a police car, he gave the victory sign to journalists. The court is less than a half a mile from Larnaca airport, where the hijacking unfolded on Tuesday. Mustafa, who has a Cypriot ex-wife, will not face any formal charges until a later hearing and only at that point will he be expected to enter a plea.
Cyprus authorities have described Mustafa as “psychologically unstable” and said the case was not “terrorism-related”.
He is accused of forcing the plane to divert to Larnaca airport on the island’s south coast on Tuesday by threatening to detonate an explosives belt that turned out to be fake. Authorities allege that his motives were personal and related to his Cypriot ex-wife with whom he is reported to have had children.
The hijacking triggered a six-hour standoff at the airport and the closure of the main entry point to Cyprus for tourists.
Most of the 55 passengers on the plane – originally travelling from Alexandria to Cairo – were quickly released after it had landed.
But some escaped only minutes before the standoff ended, including one uniformed man who was seen clambering out of a cockpit window and dropping to the ground.
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