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Egypt clears London attack suspect

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An undated family photo of Magdy el-Nashar.

SPECIAL REPORT

(CNN) -- The Egyptian government has determined that a biochemist arrested last week has no links to the July 7 attack on the London mass transit system.

Magdy el-Nashar was taken into custody Friday at the Cairo airport on the request of British police leading the probe into the attacks that killed 52 people.

Tuesday, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior presented the cabinet of President Hosni Mubrak an "internal security report" that cleared el-Nashar, according to ministry spokesman Hisham Safiya.

He said the Egyptian probe also found no connections between el-Nashar and al Qaeda, the Islamic terrorist group suspected in the London attacks after carrying out the coordinated bombings on Madrid's rail system last year, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and numerous other atrocities worldwide.

Officials did not say, however, if or when el-Nashar might be released.

British embassy diplomats and Scotland Yard detectives who arrived in Cairo Sunday have been in contact with Egyptian investigators.

El-Nashar, 33, received a doctorate in biochemistry this year from a university in Leeds, England, near where the four London bombers lived.

His name and telephone number surfaced during property searches by British investigators.

El-Nashar also studied chemical engineering at North Carolina State University in Raleigh during the spring semester in 2000.

He has lived in England since 2000, but was visiting his family in Cairo. His brother said el-Nashar was on his way to Friday prayers when he was detained.

El-Nashar's friends in Leeds said he told them that he was planning on returning to England after his holiday to look for a job.

--CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh, Ayman Mohyeldin, Caroline Farraj, Octavia Nasr, and Henry Schuster contributed to this report.

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