CAIRO, April 11. /TASS/. A group of Russian citizens, who were detained in Egypt last August, have been charged with extremism, the head of the Russian embassy’s consular department, Yusup Abakarov, told TASS on Wednesday.
"On April 9, a court held its first hearing into a case against a group of detainees, which includes five Russians. They were officially charged with extremist activities," he said.
"The diplomats and the father of one of the suspects, who came from Ingushetia, were not allowed into the courtroom under the pretext of closed hearings," the Russian diplomat went on.
According to Abakarov, the Russians were for the first time allowed to see a lawyer, who was present at the hearings and later informed Russian diplomats about the results.
In August 2018, a group of Russian citizens who came to Egypt to study, was detained in the country’s capital Cairo. Later, some of them were released, but the fate of five of them - all residents of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia - was unknown until recently.
Later, it was established that four Russians were transferred to a prison near Cairo, but no charges were filed against them.
"The fate of the fifth one, resident of Ingushetia Hezir Dugiyev, who was also presumably detained by the authorities, remains unknown to date," the consul said. "Egypt’s law enforcement agencies do not confirm his detention. And we have no idea of his current whereabouts."
As part of the same case, charges of extremism were also laid against a Russian woman of Kyrgyz origin and a mother of five, the Russian diplomat said.