A young Egyptian student in California was found in custody of the FBI after disappearing for several days without a trace, according to the website Egyptian Streets.
Emad El Sayed vanished on February 12 and was unreachable to friends and family trying to locate him. According to family members, El Sayed had been studying at the Universal Air Academy in Los Angeles since September 2015.
For more than a week, family members were perplexed about his disappearance, before discovering that El Sayed had been apprehended by the FBI for "sharing a post" online that was against Donald Trump.
“My brother Emad El Sayed who has been missing since Friday, 12th of February…was apprehended by FBI, for sharing a post that was against the U.S candidate Donald Trump, as ridiculous as it may sound, yes it is in fact the reason why he was put under arrest,” his sister, Ohoud Ali, wrote on Facebook.
Egypt's Foreign Ministry confirmed that El Sayed was arrested for posting what police believed to be a death threat. The source in the foreign ministry attributed "paranoia with terrorism" in the US and the fact that El Sayed was studying aviation with the reasons why he was apprehended.
According to his sister, El Sayed was denied his right to a lawyer throughout the process, explaining why no one knew of his whereabouts during his detention. She also said that the FBI had dropped the charges against him, but now there is a case to cancel his visa to study in the US.
El Sayed has still not been released, but the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said they are working to ensure he can continue to live in the US to finish his studies.
