The fate of a Chechen leader's son, who was deported by Egypt on Friday, is unknown, his family and rights group Memorial said.
Maskhud Abdullayev, the son of Supyan Abdullayev, a Chechen commander fighting Russian rule in Chechnya, and his companion Akhmed Azimov "were taken to Moscow on an airplane Friday, but the welcoming party did not see them among the passengers," Memorial said in a statement on Saturday.
Azimov, who came out after several hours, said that he had been separated from Abdullayev and questioned.
"This boy waited for Maskhud for three hours, but he never came out. We called customs and other officials, but no one gave me an answer as I pleaded for my son's return," Abdullayev's mother Satsita told the Moscow Echo radio.
"There can be no charges, Maskhud never committed any crime, he left Chechnya when he was 12 and stayed away," Satsita said, adding that she had appealed to international courts "as he was hidden away, and I am desperate."
"It looks like our worst expectations came true. Here is the disappearance of a man who was in the state's hands, and not in the north Caucasus, but in Moscow," Memorial's chief Oleg Orlov said.
Abdullayev 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.
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 Feb. 22 bombing in a Cairo tourist district that killed a French teenager.
Abdullayev, 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.
Four students among dozens rounded up by security services on May 27 were put on a flight to Moscow.
Source: Agencies
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