Egypt deports German national for suspected Daesh links

CAIRO

The Egyptian authorities on Friday deported a dual German-Egyptian national on suspicion of having links to the Daesh terrorist group.

According to flagship government daily Al-Ahram, Mahmoud Izzat Abdul Aziz, 24, a student at the Islamic University in Saudi Arabia, was detained in Egypt earlier this week by the local authorities.

The newspaper reported that Abdul Aziz had “tried to join Daesh terrorist elements” in Egypt’s volatile Sinai Peninsula, where a low-intensity militant insurgency has simmered since Egypt’s 2013 military coup.

According to Al-Ahram, Abdul Aziz was released from custody and slated for deportation after giving up his Egyptian citizenship.

The same newspaper went on to report that a second German-Egyptian national -- Issa Ibrahim Sabbagh, 19 -- had been detained upon his arrival from Germany in Egypt’s southern city of Luxor.

The newspaper quoted officials as saying that Sabbagh had been found with maps of Sinai in his possession and that he adhered to “Daesh-inspired ideologies”.

“Procedures are currently underway for his deportation to his country of nationality [i.e., Germany],” Al-Ahram reported.

On Monday, German media outlets reported that the German authorities were looking into the disappearance of two German nationals in Egypt.