18 Russian citizens are stuck in an Egyptian detention center

The Egyptian authorities are holding 18 Russian citizens (including nine children) in a deportation prison at one of Cairo’s airports, eyewitnesses told the human rights group “Memorial.” The Russians in custody are all from Dagestan, and (as of May 1) Egypt apparently planned to send them back to Russia. According to Memorial, police in Egypt regularly carry out “repressive actions against citizens of post-Soviet states,” denying legal and consular aid to detainees.

Memorial and the BBC’s Russian-language service first reported these detentions in late April, writing that masked men took a woman’s whole family into custody in connection with her ex-husband, who joined the Caucasus Emirate terrorist group.

Iraq currently imprisons several dozen Russian citizens (captured terrorists and the relatives of killed terrorists). In April, the country sentenced almost 20 women from Russia to life imprisonment.