/ 2 March 1999

AUS MUFTI UNDER ARREST

EGYPTIAN authorities have barred the leader of Australia’s Moslems from leaving Egypt as they investigate him for allegedly trying to smuggle antiquities, Egyptian and Australian officials said on Monday.”He is free on bail pending a further hearing in May and … is not allowed to leave the country in the interim,” said Australia’s Cairo consul.Sheikh Tageddin Hamed Abdallah, a dual Egyptian and Australian citizen vacationing in Egypt, was bailed for $600 at a Sunday hearing in the southern town of Qena. He allegedly paid to buy pharaonic antiquities from 10 people now arrested on smuggling charges.Four of them are accused of murdering a police officer who discovered their activities.