CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian authorities on Friday deported two Chechen students, including the son of a rebel leader, to Russia where they could face torture.
"Maskhud Abdullaev, the son of (rebel leader) Supyan Abdullaev, was put on an Egyptair flight to Moscow along with another Chechen student," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Abdullaev and his colleague were due to be deported on Thursday with four other Chechen students but a traffic jam prevented police from transporting them to the airport in time.
Rights watchdog Amnesty International warned on Thursday that all six risk "torture or other-ill-treatment" if deported to Russia.
"Maskhud Abdullaev would be at heightened risk because his father, Supyan Abdullaev, is the leader of a Chechen armed group," Amnesty said.
The students were among dozens rounded up by security services on May 27 for suspected links to an alleged Al-Qaeda cell responsible for a February 22 bombing in a Cairo tourist district that killed a French teenager.
Abdullaev, who had been studying at Cairo's renowned Al-Azhar Islamic University since 2006, was initially held incommunicado at Egypt's notorious Tora prison, Amnesty said.
The students all claim to have refugee status in Azerbaijan but the Egyptian authorities insisted they return instead to Russia, Amnesty said.
The predominantly Muslim region fought two wars with Moscow after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, but it has achieved a measure of stability in recent years under the rule of strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.
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