Court sets EgyptAir plane’s hijacker’s 1st trial for February

CAIRO – 22 December 2018: Court of Appeal decided to hold the first trial of the defendant who hijacked in March 2016 an Egyptian plane carrying over 70 passengers on February 18 before the Criminal Court.

The plane was set to head from Alexandria’s Borg el-Arab Airport to Cairo International Airport before the defendant forced it to land in Larnaka International Airport in Cyprus.

Seif al-Din Imam threatened to detonate the Egyptian flag carrier EgyptAir’s plane through a jacket he wore under his clothes that had the shape of an explosive belt. The jacket he put on was made of materials not prohibited on board of planes.

In August 2018, Cypriot authorities who managed to arrest Imam two years ago extradited the 60-year –old defendant to Egypt. The Egyptian Prosecution interrogated Imam for 15 hours, where he attempted to change his plea and claim he occasionally suffers from mental disorders. Furthermore, he denied any political incentives behind the hijack and asserted solely personal reasons.

Imam admitted that he committed the crime in a bid to meet his Greek wife and two children, who he has not seen in 20 years. However, he affirmed that the explosive belt was fake and that he was able to go through all security checks in Borg Al Arab Airport without any suspicion.

The prosecution ordered his detention for 15 days and referred the case to the Public Prosecutor. The case against him includes kidnapping, terrorizing citizens, violence threats, transferring hostages to an unknown destination, and using explosives to threaten citizens.

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Additional reporting by Noha al-Tawil