A prominent Bahraini activist has been barred from entering Egypt upon the request of a security agency, a Cairo airport official told the Associated Press.
Nabeel Rajab has been documenting human rights abuses in Bahrain during the island kingdom's 14-month uprising against the Sunni ruling family. He is the president of the Bahrain Center for Human rights.
The official, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, did not elaborate on the decision to deny Rajab entry.
Activists in Egypt have said that authorities are trying to prevent regional activists from networking.
Activists say this latest deportation indicates that while authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak may have been removed during last year's uprising, his security agencies are unchanged and may be tracking dissenters even more closely than before, AP reports.
Rajab wrote on his Twitter account before leaving: "In Mubarak's Egypt, we were never barred from entering. Now in post-revolution Egypt, we are."
Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that a statement from the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said Rajab was scheduled to attend a conference run by the center. It added that airport security declined to justify the measure, and noted that the move violates the law and human rights since Rajab carried proper travel documents that grant him entry. The statement stressed that attendants to the conference are sure Rajab was denied access due to his support for the popular uprising in Bahrain.
Two weeks ago, the airport detained another Bahraini activist, Maryam Alkhawaja, for two hours in the deportation hall before granting her entry. Alkhawaja also works at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.
