Detained Egyptian chemist set free

Authorities today released an Egyptian chemist detained for questioning following the July 7 bombings in London, saying he had been cleared of suspicion, an Interior Ministry official said.

Magdy el-Nashar had been sought by Britain in connection with the attacks in London, which killed at least 56 people in explosions on London’s Underground and on a bus.

El-Nashar, 33, was studying at Leeds University, and the British government suspected him of links to some of the four bombers, three of whom were from the Leeds area.

El-Nashar had returned to Egypt on holiday a week before the attacks. Egyptian authorities arrested him several days after the bombings, and officials from Scotland Yard travelled to Egypt to attend his questioning.

An official from the Interior Ministry’s media office said he was released today after authorities found no evidence against him and no links to either the attacks or to al Qaida.

“There is nothing against him,” the official said when asked whether el-Nashar would be extradited to Britain. Egypt has previously said it would not hand him over.

A spokeswoman for London’s Metropolitan Police had no comment on the release, saying it was a matter for the Egyptian authorities. The force has previously said it was liaising closely with the Egyptians following the July 7 bombings, but hasn’t identified el-Nashar as a suspect.

El-Nashar returned to his home in the Cairo neighbourhood of Basatin before dawn today – to the surprise of his family, who hadn’t been informed of his release.

“We heard the knock at the door, and his father went down to answer. He started screaming, ’Magdy! Magdy is here!”’ said his mother with tears in her eyes. “You can imagine, a mother’s heart when her son comes in after what happened.”

She said she had only been able to speak to him once by telephone since his detention and that the family hadn’t been allowed to visit him. She would only give her name as Umm Magdy – Arabic for “Magdy’s mother,” a traditional way for conservative Egyptian women to indentify themselves in public.

“My heart was torn every day (he was gone) I wasn’t eating or sleeping. Since he was taken I’ve felt there was a knife stuck in my heart,” said Umm Magdy, who wore a black and white headscarf. “I was always sure of his innocence, but I was always afraid of the unknown.”

El-Nashar’s neighbours gathered outside the house today, cheering his release.

“He is in good health, thank God,” Magdy’s younger brother, Mohammed el-Nashar, said. “There were never any charges against him.”

But his mother insisted, “I won’t let him go to London now unless the British government officially announces he is innocent the same way they accused him.”

El-Nashar had just completed his doctorate in biolchemistry at Leeds when the attacks occured and had returned to Egypt to submit his certification to the government research centre that sponsored his studies in Britain. He told his interrogators that he had intended to return to Leeds after his holiday.

At the time of the bombings, British media reported that traces of TATP, used by bomber Richard Reid who failed in 2001 to blow up an airplane with explosives in his shoes, were found in el-Nashar’s apartment during raids in Leeds. But the reports were never confirmed.