Human Rights Watch confirmed on Monday that two of its executive directors, Kenneth Roth and Sarah Leah Whitson, had been ordered to return to the United States. The members of the New York-based group were held overnight in Cairo Airport and were expected to be sent back to the US on Monday.

"This is the first time that Egyptian authorities have denied Human Rights Watch staff members entry to the country, including during the Mubarak government," HRW Executive Director Roth later wrote in a statement published on the group's website.

There was no immediate comment available from the Egyptian government regarding the incident.

Roth, Whitson and the writer of the report, Human Rights Fellow Omar Shakir, had travelled to Cairo for the Tuesday release of a new report about the violent police crackdown on protesters who were demonstrating against the removal of Egyptian leader Mohammed Morsi nearly one year ago.

HRW had already shared the report with the Egyptian government. "However, it appears the Egyptian government has no appetite to face up to the reality of these abuses, let alone hold those responsible to account," Roth wrote.

The New-York based group closed its Cairo bureau in February citing security concerns.

Report to be released Tuesday

Despite the setback to their travel plans, HRW planned to go ahead with the Tuesday release.

The one year investigation looks at six demonstrations between July and August 2013 in which 1,150 people were killed.

The most prominent case involved the massacre at the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp on August 14, 2013. In an attempt to clear the sit-in, which had been going on for roughly six weeks, security forces swept the area. The crackdown on the pro-Morsi supporters resulted in roughly 700 civilian deaths over the course of 12 hours, according to Egyptian officials. Eight police officers were also killed. Rights activists believe the death toll was much higher.

Egypt's government under President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has been criticized by rights groups for its violent crackdowns and mass arrests of people aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, its main opponent. The current Egyptian leader had led the coup against Egypt's first democratically-elected leader, Mohammed Morsi, in the summer of 2013 and has since supported policies aimed at eradicating the Brotherhood, which had backed Morsi.

The Islamist group was declared a terrorist group in December. On Saturday, Egypt's highest administrative court dissolved its political party, known as the Freedom and Justice Party.

kms/se (AFP, Reuters, dpa)