Saudi businessman kidnapped in Egypt freed

Riyadh : Kidnapped Saudi businessman Hassan Ali al-Sanad has been released with the help of Egyptian security after more than a week in custody on Thursday, Saudi ambassador to Egypt has confirmed.

Sanad was kidnapped in Egypt by a masked gang on April 26 at Kilometre 76 on the highway linking Cairo and Ismailiya as he left his factory and was making his way to Cairo international airport.

“The businessman was with his driver heading to Al-Suwais Governorate when his car was stopped by an armed gang, which dragged him and his driver out of the car and bundled them into a private car and whisked them away,” Al-Ismailiyah Police Department Director Col. Mahmoud Khalil said last week.

Last year, Saudi Arabia alerted its citizens to be cautious while doing business in Egypt after a Saudi woman and her daughter were killed in a purportedly financially motivated double homicide.