American Detained in Egypt Returns After Trump Intervenes

Aya Hijazi and her husband Mohamed Hassanein, founders of Belady, an NGO that promotes a better life for street children, talk inside a holding cell as they face trial on charges of human trafficking at a courthouse in Cairo, Egypt on March 23, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

WASHINGTON—An Egyptian-American woman detained in Egypt for nearly three years on human trafficking charges was flown back to the United States on Thursday on a U.S. military plane, accompanied by a top White House official, a senior administration official said.

Aya Hijazi, an Egyptian who holds U.S. citizenship, was acquitted by a Cairo court on Sunday along with seven others who had worked with street children. Hijazi was released from jail on Tuesday, having been held for nearly three years.

She was flown to Joint Base Andrews, the U.S. military airfield on the outskirts of Washington.

President Donald Trump had privately asked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to help out in the case when Sisi visited the White House on April 3, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Aya Hijazi, founder of a non-governmental organisation that looks after street children, sits reading a book inside a holding cell as she faces trial on charges of human trafficking, sexual exploitation of minors, and using children in protests, at a courthouse in Cairo, Egypt on March 23, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany