Passport officials at Cairo International Airport prevented Abla Fawzi, the wife of businessman and steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz, from travelling to Beirut via Middle Eastern Airlines yesterday. Abla was deported from the airport as soon as she showed her passport to authorities. She is on the list of people banned from leaving the country by order of the prosecutor general, Abdel Magid Mahmoud. Judge Assem el-Gohary, the Assistant Minister of Justice and head of the Illicit Gains Authority (IGA), dismissed Fawzi after she presented documents that certify the legitimacy of her finances. This came after Judge Khalid Salim, the chairman of the investigation committee at the IGA, heard Fawzi's statements for the fourth time in a row, having decided to freeze her bank accounts. During the hearing, Fawzi provided several documents and papers proving the separation of her financial assets from those of her husband, who is now serving time in Tora prison for charges of corruption. The documents and papers were annexed to the investigation file until a final ruling was issued.
