CAIRO: An American journalist arrested in 2008 while covering the aftermath of clashes between the police and residents of the Delta town of Mahalla has been prevented from entering Egypt.
James Buck, a multimedia journalist, was detained at Cairo Airport in the early hours of Friday morning coming from Germany. He had come to Egypt in order to study Arabic in Alexandria.
At around 7 am Cairo time Buck sent out two messages on instant messaging service Twitter saying, “Denied re-entry to Egypt and deported to Dubai. Questioned about 2008. Will update;” and “Was not given explanation, no allegations made. Just a simple ‘turn around’. Thankfully unharmed. Maintain warm feelings for Egypt, Egyptians.”
In 2008, Buck was held for 24 hours in a Mahalla police station after being arrested while photographing relatives of the hundreds of people detained following clashes in which three people were killed.
Buck joins a list of foreigners recently denied entry into Egypt who it is suspected were prevented from entering the country because of their work or involvement in political activity.
In September 2009 US citizen Travis Randall was prevented from entering Egypt after being told by security bodies that “his name was on the computer.” Randall, who had lived in Egypt for two and a half years had in February taken part in a pro-Gaza march whose organizer, Philip Rizk, was kidnapped by state security officers and held incommunicado for four days.
Swedish journalist Per Bjorklund, who also took part in the same march was in late September 2009 stopped at Cairo Airport upon his arrival from Sweden, held for three days and then deported.
Rights groups frequently criticize arbitrary administrative decisions allegedly taken by security bodies at Cairo Airport.
In May the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) called on state security investigations to respect a court decision which upholds the right of Quranist blogger Abdel-Latif Said to travel abroad.
Said was twice prevented from traveling abroad by airport security officials in 2009.
In November 2009 politician Ayman Nour was prevented from traveling to the US for an appearance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
