A former Peking University economics professor who is being sued for claiming that professors at the university had sexually harassed waitresses working on campus said on Wednesday that he is being prevented from leaving the country.

Zou Hengfu, who worked for the university from 1998 until his dismissal in 2007, wrote on his Sina Weibo micro blog that he had been prevented from flying to the United States for a family reunion on Wednesday morning.

He said Beijing Capital International Airport had stopped him flying on the order of the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing, which is dealing with the lawsuit.