Germany 'concerned' over two citizens missing in Egypt amid fears of arrest

Germany 'concerned' over two citizens missing in Egypt
amid fears of arrest
Germany has said that two of its citizens have gone missing in Egypt amid fears that they have been detained by authorities.
2 min read
08 January, 2019
Egyptian authorities have detained tens of thousands of people since Sisi came to power [Getty]

Germany has said that two of its citizens have gone missing in Egypt amid fears they could have been detained by authorities.

A German foreign ministry spokesman made the announcement on Monday that it was pushing Cairo for clarification in both cases.

"[The cases] concern two separate cases of German citizens who have been reported missing," Christofer Burger was quoted as saying by national news agency DPA.

"We have been dealing with this for the past several days and are taking both cases very seriously," he added.

The agency said that one case involved an 18-year-old man who went missing on December 17 before he was due to take a domestic flight from Luxor to Cairo, where he planned to visit his grandfather.

The man's father, who is of Egyptian background, told local media earlier this week that he fears his son has been held in custody possibly over mistaken identity.

"It's been three weeks now and there's no sign, no one knows if he's alive," he told DPA.

The second case involved a 23-year-old Malik Abdel Aziz who was detained at Cairo airport on 27 December after he arrived with his brother and has not been heard from since.

"We have no sign of life from my son. His phone is off and we have not received any other calls from him," Abdel Aziz's mother said in a letter to the German ambassador in Egypt.

His mother said that two brothers arrived in Cairo from the Saudi city of Jeddah, where they are reading Islamic studies to also visit their grandfather.

She added that immigration officials allowed the younger brother to enter Egypt.

Both men have German mothers and Egyptian fathers and have dual Egyptian and German citizenships.

Egyptian authorities have detained tens of thousands of people since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power through a military takeover in 2013.

Rights groups say Sisi has since installed a repressive and authoritarian regime.