French backpacker Yann Bourdon missing in Egypt for a year returns safely to Paris

The French backpacker, who had gone lacking in Egypt a yr in the past, has safely returned to his household in Paris, their lawyer mentioned on Tuesday.
AP Photograph/Thomas Padilla, File

A French backpacker who had gone lacking in Egypt a yr in the past has safely returned house to Paris, a lawyer representing his household mentioned on Tuesday.

It’s not clear what occurred over the previous yr to Yann Bourdon, whose household had speculated that he may need been detained by Egyptian safety companies. The graduate pupil on the Sorbonne, who vanished whereas on a year-long backpacking journey, declined to debate his disappearance with the media and to share particulars of his return to France.

Sarah Sakouti, a authorized counsel for the Geneva-based Committee for Justice that had pressed the Egyptian and French authorities to research the 27-year-old’s disappearance, mentioned Bourdon flew from Cairo to Paris on Aug. 10.

A day earlier than, Bourdon had phoned his sister in Paris from the French Consulate in Cairo, Sakouti instructed The Related Press. The identical day, Egyptian state safety companies had introduced they'd facilitate Bourdon’s return to Paris.

Earlier than that, his household and pals had final heard from Bourdon in August 2021.

After months of silence and stonewalling from Egyptian authorities, Bourdon’s determined household determined to go public, and used Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s official go to to Paris on July 22 to press for an investigation.

They stood on a Paris sidewalk and raised placards asking, “The place is Yann Bourdon, President Sissi?” earlier than a motorcade drove previous carrying el-Sissi to a gathering with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Worldwide rights teams have lately documented a rising variety of pressured disappearances by Egyptian authorities. Egypt’s 2011 well-liked rebellion towards Hosni Mubarak, the previous longtime president, grew out of calls for for an finish to police brutality and extrajudicial practices.

The household of a Yann Bourdon who went lacking in Egypt have used a go to to Paris by the Egyptian president to press for an investigation into his disappearance.

Wendy Bourdon, through AP

Household and pals of the scholar stood on a Paris sidewalk and raised placards asking, “The place is Yann Bourdon, President Sissi?”

AP Photograph/Thomas Padilla

Since el-Sissi ascended to energy in 2014, a lot of the freedoms gained after the 2011 rebellion have been revoked. The federal government has carried out a wide-reaching crackdown on dissent, jailing hundreds of individuals — lots of them with out a trial.

The overwhelming majority of these detained have been Egyptian residents.