CAIRO: Syrian authorities arrested last Friday Egyptian engineer Mahmoud El-Safty, who was visiting his Syrian wife and daughter in Homs city.
El-Safty, 54, who works as an engineer in Kuwait, was shooting video of a protest in Homs when Syrian authorities confiscated his camera, asking him to come back the following day to get it. He went twice to retrieve the camera and was arrested the third time.
"I have never seen a spy who comes back twice to get his camera that he supposedly used for espionage," said Ahmed El-Safty, Mahmoud’s brother.
"He would have run away since his camera was confiscated if he was a real agent. This does not make sense at all."
Though Syrian authorities have not issued a statement on the reasons for El-Safty’s arrest, his brother was referring to a recent case where an Egyptian engineer was suspected of espionage for taking pictures of protests.
El-Safty’s family did not know of his detention until Egyptian engineer Khaled El-Ghayesh who was previously detained in Syria and released on Friday, told media that El-Safty was arrested.
"As soon as we heard from El-Ghayesh about my brother, we sent a memo to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Egyptian Embassy in Syria and its counterpart in Egypt, and we are waiting for results."
El-Safty has not been officially charged. He is detained in a military prison in Homs city, where El-Ghayesh was also detained.
"My brother is diabetic and has heart problems and needs to take his medications on time," said El-Safty. "It has been five days since his detention and of course he is not given the medications; this puts his life in danger."
El-Safy is the third Egyptian known to be detained in the wake of anti-government protests in Syria. El-Ghayesh, based in Lebanon, and Egyptian-American engineer Mohamed Radwan, who was working in Syria, were arrested last month.
Both were released by Syrian authorities after intensive diplomatic efforts by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"I hope that my brother will be quickly released like what happened with El-Ghayesh and Radwan." El-Safty said.
