Egypt deported student Maskhud Abdullayev, 22, on Friday despite concerns that he was at a heightened risk of torture if returned to Russia.
Abdullayev, son of rebel leader Supyan Abdullayev, was deported on a flight to Moscow along with another Chechen, both arrested in security sweeps targeting foreign students in May. But Abdullayev failed to emerge from the airport.
"It looks like our worst expectations came true," Oleg Orlov, head of the Memorial human rights organization, said Saturday, Interfax reported.
He said security services might have detained Abdullayev to put pressure on his father, Supyan, who is a deputy of Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov.
The other student, Akhmed Azimov, was questioned for several hours after arriving at the airport and released, Interfax reported Saturday.
Abdullayev's mother, Satsita Abdullayeva, told Ekho Moskvy radio on Saturday that she hadn't heard from her son since he boarded the plane in Egypt.
"His mother in Baku is very worried. He didn't call her to tell her where he was," Orlov said.
Human rights activists said the student is not related to the Chechen rebels because he and his mother were granted asylum in Azerbaijan 10 years ago.
Abdullayev was among dozens of foreign students detained in May during security sweeps linked to an Egyptian investigation into a bomb attack in February that killed a French teenager in a popular Cairo tourist area, Amnesty International said.
Egypt deported four other Chechens on Thursday to Moscow, which has strong ties with Cairo but whose relations have been strained in recent weeks from a trade tussle about the quality of Russian wheat exported to Egypt.
President Dmitry Medvedev will visit Cairo on Tuesday.
(MT, Reuters)
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