Background
He was born in Benghazi, Libya.
He was born in Benghazi, Libya.
In 1993 eyewitnesses at the time reported that he was abducted by three men in a black limousine with diplomatic license plate a few yards from the Cairo Hotel Safir where he was staying. Neither the Egyptian nor the Libyan authorities have issued reports or claimed responsibility regarding this forced disappearance, ever. A four-year investigation conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency produced convincing evidence that Egyptian agents staged the abduction and then handed over al-Kikhia to the Libyan authorities, who executed him.
His remains were found in Libya in 2012.
The similarity between Reda Helal and Kikhia cases has raised widespread suspicion about the involvement of high ranking Egyptian officials. Kikhia"s lawyer does not rule out Libyan and American involvement in his disappearance.
The recent arrest in London of a highly respected Egyptian engineer, Professor Momdouh Hamza, has implicated four top Egyptian officials with close ties to the Mubarak family and re-opened the rumor mill in Cairo. Foreign years Egyptians have heard of forced disappearance of public figures elsewhere in the region (eg Iraq, Syria and Libya) but not their own.