An expert from the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, Amr El-Shobaki, expressed fears that the oppression practiced by ousted president Hosni Mubarak's regime might have been revived these days. El-Shobaki's statement came shortly after completing arrival procedures at the Cairo Airport when he returned from a Lebanon trip on Saturday. He noted that he had to wait, along with the other passengers, for security to verify their identities. “Actually, these procedures were applied by the now-dismantled State Security apparatus,” he told Al Ahram Arabic portal. “Over the past six months these kinds of procedures completely disappeared; I had travelled [to Saudi Arabia] several times during that period to go on umrah [the lesser pilgrimage] and I was treated differently. “What happened wasn't because of me at all, but I'm afraid this could be a sign of the beginning of a revitalisation of the same repression that people have long suffered under the former regime.” El-Shobaki returned to Egypt after taking part in a seminar in Beirut, where he gave a lecture about the January 25 Revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak on 11 February.
