Tampa (Florida): Two Egyptian college students arrested near a Navy weapons station last year were carrying low-grade firework materials as they claimed, and not dangerous explosives as charged by federal prosecutors, the FBI said. Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 26,and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21,engineering students at the University of South Florida, have been in jail since sheriff's deputies found what they called bomb-making materials in the trunk of their car during a traffic stop near Charleston, South Carolina. They were indicted on federal charges of transporting explosives illegally.

But an FBI report submitted to the court yesterday by Megahed's public defender said the items found in the trunk of the car - PVC pipe containing a mixture of sugar, potassium nitrate and cat litter - are ingredients for a "pyrotechnic mixture" that burned but did not explode in tests.

"Simply put, based on the FBI expert testing, the PVC pipes found in the trunk of the vehicle were harmless pyrotechnic materials similar to those found in fireworks and road flares," wrote public defender Adam Allen in a motion asking a judge to reconsider letting Megahed out on bail.

Allen said the testing corroborates Mohamed's claim that he was interested in fireworks and bought ingredients to make his own "sugar rockets." The materials do not meet the legal definition of explosives, Allen said. US Attorney s Office spokesman Steve Cole declined comment on the filing today.

Source : PTI