Egypt blocks former presidential candidate’s daughter from travel

Egyptian security services at Cairo International Airport prevented the daughter of Hamdeen Sabahi, a Nasserist former presidential candidate, from travelling abroad yesterday.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency cited a security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that Salma Sabahi was stopped during her check-in as she was preparing to board a flight headed to the UAE.

The security source said that airport security personnel had found that she had been placed on a travel ban list that had apparently been imposed by the state prosecutor in 2013.

“Immediately, her flight was cancelled and her bags were returned to her from the plane,” the security source said, without giving more details.

According to Anadolu, Egyptian authorities did not comment on the incident, but confirmed that Salma, who is a TV broadcaster, was placed on a travel ban list in 2013 over fraud accusations, which she was later cleared of.

Since the ouster of the first-ever freely elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, journalists, rights activists, politicians and other have been banned from travel over various accusations or even without clear reason.