Monday, August 11, 2014

Egypt Bars Entry for 2 Staff Members of Human Rights Watch

Israel should follow the lead.
CAIRO (NYT) — Security officials have refused to allow two senior staff members from the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch to enter Egypt, where the two were to release the findings of the group’s yearlong investigation into mass killings of protesters by government forces last summer.

The group’s executive director, Kenneth Roth, and the director of its Middle East and North Africa division, Sarah Leah Whitson, said early Monday that officials at Cairo International Airport ordered them deported soon after they arrived from New York via Paris on Sunday. It was the first time that the Egyptian authorities had ever denied entry to employees of Human Rights Watch, Ms. Whitson said.

Airport officials did not provide a specific reason for the deportation but wrapped a form around Ms. Whitson’s passport and checked a box that said, “For security reasons.”

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