A top Egyptian human rights activist banned from travel

CAIRO – An airport security official says Egyptian authorities have banned a prominent human rights activist, who heads a centre investigating police abuses, from leaving the country.

Aida Seif el-Dawla, a psychiatrist and co-founder of the Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, was boarding a flight to Tunisia on Wednesday to attend a meeting of non-governmental organizations. Security authorities at Cairo international airport told her she couldn’t leave the country because her name is on a travel-ban list, according to the security official.

The official said judicial authorities banned her on the grounds that she is involved in an ongoing trial implicating the majority of the most active human rights groups in Egypt. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.