Suspect in London Bombings Freed

An Egyptian chemist who was freed Tuesday after three weeks in custody for questioning about the deadly bombings in London said he casually knew two of the attackers. He called one of them “very kind and very nice.”

After his release, the clean-shaven Magdy el-Nashar told reporters outside his home that he had nothing to do with the July 7 transit attacks, which killed 52 people and the four bombers.

El-Nashar studied at Britain’s University of Leeds, earning a doctorate in biochemistry in April.

He was detained July 14 in Cairo after Britain notified Egyptian authorities that it suspected he may have had links to some of the attackers, three of whom were from Leeds.

The 33-year-old chemist said he met one of the bombers, Jamaican-born Germaine Lindsay, in Leeds during Ramadan, the Muslim period of fasting, which was in October and November.

He said he was introduced by Lindsay to a man called Mohammed, who turned out to be Hasib Hussain, another of the July 7 bombers.

El-Nashar, a Muslim, said he helped Lindsay because he was a new convert to Islam. “He was very kind and very nice.”

El-Nashar said Islam was not an issue in the attacks, and he called the suicide bombers “young, emotional and ignorant.”

“Their knowledge of Islam was very superficial,” he said. “They have seen oppression in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and Bosnia.”

The Interior Ministry said El-Nashar was freed after authorities found no evidence against him. London police had no comment on the release.

He said he had a ticket to return to Britain on Sunday.

“I want to go back again. But I am afraid, honestly, I am afraid. Propaganda against me made people think I am terrorist.”

After the bombings, British media reported that traces of the explosive TATP were found in El-Nashar’s apartment during raids in Leeds.

That was the material used by failed shoe-bomber Richard Reid in 2001. The reports linking TATP to El-Nashar were never confirmed.