The German-Egyptian journalist Hamed Abdel-Samad has been abducted in Cairo, not by radical Islamists. An official of the Security Directorate of the Egyptian capital, said on Wednesday: “He was kidnapped in the al-Azhar Park of the people he knew.”
With his kidnappers Abdel-Samad had business relations, said the Egyptian police. After he had signed a bond that they had released him again. In the dispute it was gone by an amount of 250,000 Egyptian pounds, the equivalent of almost 27,000 euros.
Abdel-Samad, 41, who has lived 23 years in Germany and has German citizenship, had disappeared on Sunday during a visit to Cairo.
His brother had expressed this suspicion on Monday night in an Egyptian television program. Hamed Abdel-Samad had fallen out with his business partners for a common investment and outstanding checks. The dispute already occupy a court in the Cairo suburb Chanka. However, the brother of the author suspected radical Islamists also. Abdel-Samad had been threatened by them in the past.
Abdel-Samad said to have been slightly injured
Kacem Al Ghazzali, a friend Abdel-Samad, told that the German-Egyptian author to have been wounded in the incident. “He’s been hurt in one eye and easy on the head.” This gave him the brother of journalist, Mahmoud Abdel-Samad, announced on Tuesday morning. The author himself could not be reached.
According to Ghazzali Abdel-Samad was in Egypt to visit his family and to settle a personal matter. The incident has now made him earlier than planned to return to Germany. On Thursday or Friday he will return to Germany.
“On Thursday, at the latest on Friday he will fly to Germany,” Ghazali said. “I think Hamed wants to speak only when he was back in Germany. Since it is safer and may be more likely to talk,” Ghazali said.
Radical Islamists Had the author in the summer threatened with murder after he “Islamofascism” accused the Muslim Brotherhood at a lecture in a small circle in Cairo. “Shortly after the Internet began a smear campaign against me on Facebook posted several pages with photos of me, where ‘Wanted Dead!’ was written, “said Abdel-Samad.
According to the Foreign Office, Abdel-Samad is in the custody of the German Ambassador in Cairo.
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