In overturning a travel ban on researcher Ahmed Samir Santawy on Tuesday, Egypt’s Higher Administrative Court struck down the Ministry of Interior’s authority to impose administrative travel bans, ruling that movement restrictions belong exclusively to the judiciary.
The final judgment invalidates the Ministry’s use of security-agency orders to bypass the Public Prosecution, a practice the court described as a “seizure of jurisdiction.” The ruling marks a rare legal victory for independent researchers who frequently face state harassment and “revolving door” investigations even after receiving presidential pardons.
The Court ruled that under Article 62 of the Constitution, travel bans must be issued through a reasoned judicial order for a specific duration. The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), which represented Santawy, said in a statement that the ruling reaffirms rights that cannot be restricted by “loose security assessments.”
Santawy, a Master’s student at Central European University in Vienna, was prevented from leaving Cairo three times in August 2022 despite possessing valid visas. These restrictions followed a 2022 presidential pardon that annulled the three-year sentence imposed in an Emergency State Security Misdemeanors case.
At that time, AFTE, acting on behalf of Santawy, filed a challenge against the travel ban decision before the Administrative Court, requesting his name be removed from the travel ban lists. The court rejected the challenge, based on Interior Ministry submissions.
In response, AFTE filed an appeal before the Higher Administrative Court, which annulled the lower court’s ruling and ordered the Ministry of Interior to allow Santawy to travel. The court accepted that a travel ban must be by a reasoned judicial order and for a specified period, in accordance with Article 62 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of movement, residence, and emigration and stipulates that no citizen may be banned from traveling “except by a reasoned judicial order for a specified period of time, and in cases specified by the law.”
Commenting on the ruling, Fatma Serag, AFTE’s lawyer, noted the judgment establishes a precedent that enshrines judicial oversight over the Ministry’s discretionary powers.
AFTE called on the Ministry of Interior to uphold the rule of law and promptly implement the ruling by removing Santawy’s name from the travel ban lists, thereby enabling him to exercise his constitutional right to freedom of movement and resume his academic career, including with peers in international forums.
