Egypt prevents travel ban Briton from boarding flight

Egypt prevents travel ban Briton from boarding flight

Cairo airport authorities prevented an English woman, who is banned from leaving Egypt until the end of a probe into NGOs' handling of cash and other activities, from flying to Britain on Friday, airport sources said.

February 11, 2012 6:08 by Reuters

The woman, who works for an American nonprofit group, was asked to leave a London-bound aircraft after checks showed she was on the list of those banned from travelling, they said.

The sources were unable to name the woman or the organization she worked for, but said she had not been detained and had left the airport.

A total of 43 foreigners, mostly Americans, and locals have been banned from leaving Egypt and their cases have been referred to a criminal court in a row that has led Washington to warn that $1.3 billion a year of military aid may be at risk.

Egypt has said top US army officials will visit Cairo for talks with Egyptian leaders on Saturday in an attempt to resolve the dispute.

One of the judges leading the probe said on Wednesday that the non-governmental organizations had violated Egyptian tax laws by not declaring their income from abroad or paying taxes on their workers’ pay and had carried out political activities unrelated to their civil society work.

The travel bans were imposed because some of those wanted for questioning left the country, the judge said.

The United States wants Egypt to drop the travel bans on at least 19 U.S. citizens involved in the case, but the Egyptian government says it cannot intervene. (Writing by Dina Zayed; Editing by Tim Pearce) *image from morrisonworldnews.com