Prominent Egyptian activist and lawyer Gamal Eid has said that security officials prevented him from travelling from Cairo to Athens early Thursday morning amid what he describes as a campaign against rights campaigners critical of authorities.

"A late decision was issued. I’ve been prevented from travelling and I’m returning from the airport! What a law-respecting country,” Eid, director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights, wrote on Facebook early Thursday.

Eid was barred from leaving on a dawn flight bound to Athens after his name was found on a no-fly list, airport officials told Aswat Masriya news website.
Eid said that he was not provided with a reason for the ban by the airport authorities.

The officials said that the ban comes from a decision by the country's top prosecutor on the grounds that Eid is involved in an ongoing trial.

"His luggage was discharged off the plane and he was allowed to leave," one of the officials said.

Eid was not immediately available to comment.

He wrote two days ago that he expects a looming wave of "fabrication or scrambling to raise charges against rights campaigners who continue to criticise repression."

Eid added Thursday that if he was a supporter of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, he would have been handled differently.

Earlier this week, airport forces barred researcher and political activist Atef Botros from entering Egypt from Germany and deported him after he was questioned.

In June 2015, Egyptian rights activist Mohamed Lotfy, executive director of local NGO the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), had his passport confiscated and was prevented from travelling to Germany. He was due to speak at a parliament roundtable there on the human rights situation in Egypt on the same day that El-Sisi was to begin an official visit to Germany.”

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