Until Tuesday, the name Saif Al Deen Mustafa sounded unfamiliar to his compatriots in Egypt, including many of his neighbours.
But the 58-year-old man has since made global headlines. For more than six hours on Tuesday, the world held its breath after news broke that Mustafa had hijacked a domestic flight of EgyptAir and diverted it to Cyprus. A still picture, relayed by the plane’s crew, showed the hijacker with an explosive vest, which he threatened to detonate if his demands were not met.
Initially, the bespectacled, lanky man, born in June 1957 in Cairo, demanded to see his former Cypriot wife. He reportedly scribbled a four-page letter for her as he held 55 passengers and eight crew members hostage. Later, he demanded the release of 63 female prisoners held in Egypt and sought political asylum for himself in Europe.
Following a nerve-wracking standoff, Mustafa released all those onboard the Airbus A320 and surrendered to security forces at the Cypriot airport of Larnaca.
Authorities there soon found that his explosives-laden suicide belt was fake. He had made it out of a medical belt and had mobile phone covers and cables hidden in his carry-on bag.
“He looked eccentric,” said Nehal Al Barquqi, a flight attendant on the hijacked aircraft. “He agreed to have selfies with passengers and the crew. He asked for coffee and tea more than once,” Al Barquqi added.
“He kept telling us that he is not an Islamist, but a Communist.”
To his neighbours in Helwan on the outskirts of Cairo, Mustafa was a reclusive man, who had married a Cypriot woman more than 30 years ago before they divorced.
His relatives reportedly told investigators in Cairo that Mustafa had unsuccessfully sought government help to see his estranged wife and their four children in Cyprus.
“Every morning he would go out to look for a way to travel and see his children,” Mustafa’s sister, Fikriya said.
Appearing before a Cypriot court on Wednesday, Mustafa reportedly gave his burning wish for a family reunion as the motive for hijacking the plane.
“I haven’t seen my wife and children for 24 years. The Egyptian authorities have not let me. What should I do?” Mustafa said, according to Cypriot media.
‘Unbalanced and a scary person’
However, his former wife, identified as Marina Paraschou, portrayed him as an abusive husband and a drug addict.
“He was a man who knew how to inflict fear and to create misery around him. He was unbalanced and a scary person,” Marina, 51, said in an interview carried by the British newspaper the Sun.
Marina recalled that she knew him in 1983. They married two years later. They lived with her parents on Cyprus, but jobless Mustafa never provided for the family. According to her, he used to beat her and their children.
The couple divorced in 1990, prompting Mustafa to return to Egypt where he was arrested several times.
Marina called their seven-year relation a “living hell”.
Egyptian Interior Ministry said that Mustafa has a criminal record and was convicted of fraud, forgery, theft and drugs.
He escaped from jail in 2011 during a security breakdown that had hit Egypt, following a popular uprising against long-standing president Hosny Mubarak. Mustafa turned himself in to police in 2014 and was released a year later.
Now in Cyprus’ custody, he faces charges of hijacking, kidnapping, illegal possession of explosives and threat to use violence.
Egypt has requested Mustafa’s extradition to face justice in Cairo, but Cyprus has yet to decide on that request.
Mustafa’s hijack drama ended peacefully. Yet, it has revived bitter memories for his former wife and raised new questions about security at Egyptian airports.
Ramadan Al Sherbini is an Egyptian writer.
