NICOSIA: The Cypriot ex-wife of an Egyptian who hijacked a plane to Cyprus and is fighting extradition on Friday denied his claims of being a political activist and portrayed him as a common criminal.
Marina Paraschou was called to testify in a Nicosia court by the state as it seeks to have Seif Al-Din Mohamed Mostafa, 58, extradited to Egypt, which has requested he face trial under a bilateral agreement.
State counsel is trying to discredit claims by the defense that as a known political activist Mostafa would not receive a fair trial in Cairo for the hijacking in March.
Paraschou said Mostafa had never belonged to any opposition group in Egypt or been convicted for his political beliefs, despite spells behind bars in different Arab states.
“He was jailed in Egypt for being an army deserter and was convicted for passport forgery... and stealing a car,” Paraschou told the court.
During the two-hour hearing, which was adjourned until June 22, Mostafa locked his gaze on his ex-wife with a wry smile while she avoided any eye contact.
Mostafa had deserted the Egyptian army in the 1980s to join the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut, she said, before moving in 1983 to Cyprus where the couple met and had four children.
According to Paraschou, he had never taken part in any anti-regime protests in Egypt or faced harassment by Egyptian authorities for being a political activist, Paraskou said.
The couple were together from 1983 to 1992, before Paraschou left her husband and divorced him in 1994.
Mostafa spent all but one of their nine years as a couple behind bars, serving jail stints in Egypt, Yemen and Syria, she said.
The 58-year-old Egyptian man is accused of using a fake suicide belt to seize the plane flying from Alexandria in northern Egypt to Cairo and divert it to the Mediterranean island on March 29.
According to police, Mostafa voluntarily admitted to the hijacking that ended peacefully with his arrest and the release unharmed of the 55 passengers after a six-hour standoff.
His lawyer Robertos Vrahimi has argued that the hijacker’s motive was to draw attention to injustices in his homeland.
Mostafa is fighting his extradition, arguing he could be tortured or face the death penalty if sent back to Egypt.
His request for asylum has been refused as Cypriot authorities deem him a “perpetrator of serious crimes.”
The Cypriot justice ministry says Egypt has given assurances of a fair trial.
Ex-wife in Cyprus denies EgyptAir hijacker’s activist claim
Ex-wife in Cyprus denies EgyptAir hijacker’s activist claim
Venezuelans await political prisoners’ release after government vow
- Rights groups estimate there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners held in Venezuela
CARACAS: Venezuelans waited Sunday for more political prisoners to be freed as ousted president Nicolas Maduro defiantly claimed from his US jail cell that he was “doing well” after being seized by US forces a week ago.
The government of interim president Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday began to release prisoners jailed under Maduro in a gesture of openness, after pledging to cooperate with Washington over its demands for Venezuelan oil.
The government said a “large” number would be released — but rights groups and the opposition say only about 20 have walked free since, including several prominent opposition figures.
Rights groups estimate there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners held in Venezuela.
Rodriguez, vice president under Maduro, said Venezuela would take “the diplomatic route” with Washington, after Trump claimed the United States was “in charge” of the South American country.
“Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners. Thank you!” Trump said in a post late Saturday on his Truth Social platform.
“I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.”
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured in a dramatic January 3 raid and taken to New York to stand trial on drug-trafficking and weapons charges, to which they pleaded not guilty.
Anxiety over prisoners
A detained police officer accused of “treason” against Venezuela died in state custody after a stroke and heart attack, the state prosecution service confirmed on Sunday.
Opposition groups said the man, Edison Jose Torres Fernandez, 52, had shared messages critical of Maduro’s government.
“We directly hold the regime of Delcy Rodriguez responsible for this death,” Justice First, part of the Venezuelan opposition alliance, said on X.
Families on Saturday night held candlelight vigils outside El Rodeo prison east of Caracas and El Helicoide, a notorious jail run by the intelligence services, holding signs with the names of their imprisoned relatives.
Prisoners include Freddy Superlano, a close ally of opposition figurehead Maria Corina Machado. He was jailed after challenging Maduro’s widely contested re-election in 2024.
“He is alive — that was what I was most afraid about,” Superlano’s wife Aurora Silva told reporters.
“He is standing strong and I am sure he is going to come out soon.”
Maduro meanwhile claimed he was “doing well” in jail in New York, his son Nicolas Maduro Guerra said in a video released Saturday by his party.
The ex-leader’s supporters rallied in Caracas on Saturday but the demonstrations were far smaller than Maduro’s camp had mustered in the past, and top figures from his government were notably absent.
The caretaker president has moved to placate the powerful pro-Maduro base by insisting Venezuela is not “subordinate” to Washington.
Pressure on Cuba
Vowing to secure US access to Venezuela’s vast crude reserves, Trump pressed top oil executives at a White House meeting on Friday to invest in Venezuela, but was met with a cautious reception.
Experts say Venezuela’s oil infrastructure is creaky after years of mismanagement and sanctions.
Washington has also confirmed that US envoys visited Caracas on Friday to discuss reopening their embassy there.
Trump on Sunday pressured Caracas’s leftist ally Cuba, which has survived in recent years under a US embargo thanks to cheap Venezuelan oil imports.
He urged Cuba to “make a deal” or face unspecified consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would stop now that Maduro was gone.
Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel retorted on X that the Caribbean island was “ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood.”
“No one tells us what to do.”
Venezuela’s government in a statement called for “political and diplomatic dialogue” between Washington and Havana.
“International relations should be governed by the principals of international law — non-interference, sovereign equality of states and the right of peoples to govern themselves.”
