A British journalist for The Times has been expelled from Egypt, the newspaper said on Saturday, in a move it said reflected the "oppressive environment" created there for the press.
Bel Trew was driven to the airport and forced to board a flight in February, but the London-based paper held off commenting publicly as it sought to negotiate her return to cover elections starting on Monday.
This had proved fruitless, and a spokeswoman said: "The Times deplores this attempt to intimidate and suppress our coverage."
The paper said Ms Trew, who had lived in Cairo for seven years and had been reporting for The Times since 2013, was held after interviewing a relative of a man who died on a migrant boat to Europe.
"In late February, Bel Trew was arrested and forced to leave. Her detention and the threats made against her were sufficiently outlandish to suggest a mistake had been made," the spokeswoman said.
"We have been trying to ensure her safe return to Cairo to cover the presidential election. It is now clear that the authorities have no intention of allowing her to return."
A spokesman for the British embassy in Cairo told the paper that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson "has raised the case directly with the Egyptian foreign minister".
"The Egyptian authorities have not shared any evidence of wrongdoing. We will continue to press them on this," the spokesman said.
Agence France-Presse sought a response from the Egyptian foreign ministry but it was not immediately available.
The media in Egypt have been under close scrutiny in the lead-up to the elections, in which Mr Sisi is the main choice on the ballot paper.
There has been an increase in the number of cases of journalists being arrested and websites blocked.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
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Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
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Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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