Egyptian student goes missing in US over 'Donald Trump photo'

Friends claim Emad El-Sayed was arrested by the FBI for a photo mistakenly taken to be a threat on the US presidential candidate's life

Egyptian national and student Emad El-Sayed has been reported missing from the Universal Air Academy in California since 12 February .
El-Sayed's sister, Ohoud Ali, published a Facebook post on Tuesday confirming the date of her brother's disappearance from the academic institution he had been attending since September 2015.
Ali continued to state that their family has not been able to obtain any information regarding her brother's location.
Social media users have expressed solidarity with El-Sayed, launching the hashtag #Find_EmadElSayed.
A number of El-Sayed's friends have claimed that he was arrested by FBI officials at the academy on Friday evening, Ali told Daily News Egypt.
Moreover, according to Ali, her brother's friends claimed that El-Sayed was arrested for posting a picture of US presidential candidate Donald Trump on Facebook, with the words: "I would kill Donald Trump if I saw him."
Ali could not find the post on El-Sayed's Facebook page after being notified of its potential relation to her brother's disappearance.
"We, as Egyptians, are used to joking in this manner without intending any real harm, but I think the issue was taken seriously because he is in the US," Ali said, referring to the purported Facebook post.
She further confirmed that her brother does not have any political agenda or violent intent.
El-Sayed's family has taken its concerns to an Egyptian foreign ministry office in Cairo, and has submitted letters to the ministry calling for investigation into the case. However, the family received an official reply that the ministry would be unable to respond to their inquiry for 10 days.
The family next attempted to appoint a lawyer in Los Angles to seek El-Sayed's immediate release.
Ali furthered that, according to El-Sayed's friends' claims, the FBI had spoken with El-Sayed three times prior to the "arrest", claiming that the first two times came days before he went missing, while the third was on the day he went missing.
According to Ali, the Egyptian consul in Los Angeles called the family and said he spoke to El-Sayed and urged him to sign a document of consent that would allow the consulate to intervene in his favour.
However, fearing that signing such a paper would somehow confirm ill intent, El-Sayed refused to sign, according to Ali.
Daily News Egypt contacted the US Embassy in Cairo, but the representative refused to comment, explaining that it is against the embassy's regulations to provide information about individuals.
Meanwhile, Daily News Egypt was not able to reach the Egyptian consulate in Los Angles at the time of print, and the Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment.