Teacher held on smuggling charge
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An Australian teacher who allegedly stuffed his luggage with 2,000-year-old animal mummies and religious figurines wrapped as gifts was arrested and charged with smuggling antiquities, an Egyptian airport security official said.
Security officials said that when they opened the 61-year-old teacher’s case, they found mummies of a cat and an ibis, a long-beaked bird, both dating to 300 BC. The confiscated items also included 19 figurines of the ancient Egyptian gods Horus and Thoth, wrapped as gifts.
The charge carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
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