London probe biochemist arrested in Egypt

Cairo police have detained an Egyptian biochemist sought in the probe into last week’s London bombings and are questioning him, a government official said today.

Magdy el-Nashar, 33, was taken into custody upon his arrival in Cairo from abroad, the official said.

The official could not specify the date or where el-Nashar was arriving from, but said it could be as long as a week ago. He said US, British and Egyptian officials had been in contact over el-Nashar, over the bombs which killed at least 54 people.

Since his detention, el-Nashar has been undergoing questioning, the official said.

The official corrected his earlier information el-Nashar was detained today.

Metropolitan Police in London said a man had been arrested in Cairo, but would not confirm his name or characterise him as a suspect in the July 7 London blasts. The British Embassy in Cairo said it had no comment beyond the Metropolitan Police statement.

The Egyptian official did not give further details on the arrest, and an Interior Ministry spokesman refused to comment.

British and FBI officials were looking for el-Nashar, who recently had been teaching chemistry at Leeds University. The Times newspaper said el-Nashar was thought to have rented one of the homes police searched in Leeds in a series of raids on Tuesday. Neighbours reported el-Nashar recently left Britain, saying he had a visa problem, the newspaper said.

Leeds University said el-Nashar arrived in October 2000 to do biochemical research, sponsored by the National Research Centre in Cairo, Egypt. It said he earned a doctorate on May 6.

El-Nashar left Egypt in late 1999 for the US, where he spent a semester at North Carolina State as a graduate student in chemical engineering for a semester beginning in January 2000. FBI agents in Raleigh, North Carolina, joined the search for el-Nashar.