Outrage After Heathrow Airport Staff Insist On Frisking Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church

Security officers working at Heathrow Airport have sparked a major diplomatic row after insisting that the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church undergo a body search.

Pope Shenouda III was in Britain to consecrate St George’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Stevenage and was also involved with visiting the UK's Copts. As the pope went into the VIP lounge at Heathrow Airport has was told that he would have to have a body search. The Egyptian Ambassador who was travelling with the pope argued about the order from staff informing them that the the pope held an Egyptian Diplomatic passport. Despite the passport staff insisted that he would have to have the body search after new rules were introduced by the Home Office stating that apart from heads of state snap searches of all travellers were mandatory.

The situation developed into a confrontation in which the pope would not allow the bosy search but staff were not prepared to back down. Eventually a supervisor agreed to not make the body search but insisted that Shenouda should pass through the airport metal detector.

There has been anger from the Egyptian Foreign Ministry as a result of the actions. A diplomatic letter has been sent to the British Ambassador Dominic Asquith informing him that the Archbishop of Canterbury and all British Diplomanst would be body searched when arriving Egypt, if this incident occured again.

Published by: Jon Vickery