Egypt says it has asked Cypriot authorities to hand over an Egyptian man accused of hijacking a passenger plane and diverting it to Cyprus, though Cyprus denies any such request.
A statement from the office of the Egyptian general prosecutor, Nabil Sadek, said he had asked Cyprus to “take necessary measures to extradite [Seif Eldin] Mustafa in order to start an investigation”.
But Nikos Christodoulides, a Cypriot government spokesman, told the Guardian: “It’s not true, we don’t have such a request. And to be honest with you, it would not be normal to have such a request when a police investigation is ongoing.”
Mustafa, 59, surrendered on Tuesday after commandeering an Alexandria-Cairo flight with 72 passengers and crew on board. All hostages were released unharmed.
On Wednesday morning, a district court in the seaside town of Larnaca, site of Cyprus’s main international airport, remanded Mustafa in custody on suspicion of hijacking the plane with a fake suicide belt. The court ordered that Mustafa be detained for eight days while police conduct an in-depth inquiry into Tuesday’s takeover of EgyptAir flight MS181.
The father of four faces charges that are likely to range from hijacking, illegal possession of explosives, kidnapping and threat to commit violence. “Under law, police will then recommend whether the case should go to trial,” a police spokesman in Nicosia said. “The attorney general will then make that decision.”
The bespectacled Egyptian appeared before the court after spending his first night in a police holding cell.
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