Egypt bans activist from leaving country

Egyptian officials have banned a famous activist of the 2011 uprising from leaving the country as she was trying to go to Thailand’s capital, Bangkok.

Officials at Cairo International Airport said they stopped Asmaa Mahfouz on Tuesday following a request from the prosecutor general’s office, adding that her name was on a list of people barred from leaving the country.

Mahfouz was told to go back home after being briefly detained by immigration officials.

She was a leading figure of the uprising that put an end to the 30-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 and led to the election of Mohammed Morsi, who was subsequently ousted.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was toppled in July 2013 in a military coup led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who was at that time the army commander and is the country’s current president.

The Egyptian government has been cracking down on any opposition since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted, and Sisi is accused of leading the suppression of Morsi supporters, as hundreds of them have been killed in clashes with Egyptian security forces over the last year.

Rights groups say the army’s crackdown on the supporters of Morsi has led to the death of over 1,400 people and the arrest of 22,000 others, including some 200 people who have been sentenced to death in mass trials.

The UN Human Rights Council has repeatedly expressed concern over the Egyptian security forces’ heavy-handed crackdown and the killing of anti-government protesters.

MSM/BB/HRB