Sudan opposition party says its leader denied entry to Egypt

CAIRO – A Sudanese opposition party says its leader has been denied entry to Egypt upon his arrival from Germany.

Sunday’s statement by the National Ummah Party says that al-Sadiq al-Mahdi was stopped on Saturday at Cairo Airport, on his way back from attending a Sudanese opposition meeting in Berlin.

It also said Egyptian authorities had asked Al-Mahdi, who resides in Egypt, not to attend the conference.

Egypt airport officials said in a statement Sunday that processing procedures had simply taken a long time and that Al-Mahdi later headed to London. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Al-Mahdi, 82, was Sudan’s last democratically elected prime minister and was overthrown in a 1989 Islamist-backed coup.