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CAIRO (AP) — The nephew of President Anwar Sadat's assassin and son of a wanted Islamist returned to Egypt for the first time in two decades on Saturday after Egypt's new leaders removed him and others from an entry blacklist in an apparent shift in policy.

Khaled el-Islambouli returned with his wife, two children and three siblings after getting travel documents from the Egyptian Embassy in Turkey, Cairo airport officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

The ruling military council that took control of Egypt from ousted President Hosni Mubarak has removed nearly 2,000 people from a list of Egyptians barred from entering the country. Other officials said many more Egyptians remain barred from entry, and a separate blacklist for foreigners remains in place.

Some, like el-Islambouli and his family, were not sought by authorities but had been included on the list under Mubarak's rule as a way to pressure their wanted relatives. Most of those barred from entry were Islamists who traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1980s to join the fight against the Soviet forces that invaded Afghanistan.

After a wave of attacks by Islamists in Egypt in the 1990s, Mubarak's government had decided to prevent them from returning to Egypt and also included their families.