EGYPT: Hundreds protest arrest of Cairo university student

Hundreds of university students protest the arrest of one of their fellow students who belonged to the outlawed Muslim brotherhood. Hundreds of university students in Egypt held a demonstration on Tuesday (October 2) to protest the arrest earlier in the day of one of their colleagues who belonged to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The students gathered in the afternoon outside of the gates of Cairo University after state security officers arrested Ali Barakat, a student in the faculty of commerce, because he was allegedly carrying banners into the campus supporting the Brotherhood's campaign in the upcoming student union elections. The university administration has banned the Muslim Brotherhood from the elections. The arrest also comes amidst reports that the university has expelled fourteen students on charges of membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, which is officially banned in Egypt. The arrest and alleged expulsions appear to be in keeping with an ongoing crackdown by Egyptian authorities on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group. Egyptian authorities are holding scores of members of the Brotherhood, which operates openly in Egypt despite having been banned since 1954 and whose members hold a fifth of the seats in parliament as independents. Members are often held without charge. At Tuesday's protest, student Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Kotb accused the administration of targeting the group unfairly. "We are protesting today because one of our colleagues has been kidnapped from inside Cairo University which we consider to be our home, and over only two weeks, without our engaging in any activities, 160 students have been referred to an investigative committee, and fourteen have been expelled," Kotb said. "This is our country, we are not leaving here or moving until we get our full rights, God willing," he added. Earlier this year the university banned the Muslim Brotherhood from running in student union elections, forbidding any group based on religion from taking part. Spokesmen for the Muslim Brotherhood students also said that a total of 160 students were under investigation for membership in the group, and that the university was threatening to expel all of them. In the last few months the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has cracked down on dissent by the Muslim Brotherhood, put independent journalists on trial and has shut one well known human rights group. One student, Hossam Abu Shanab, said the group was demanding the arrested students' release and an apology from the university. "First we are demanding an explanation for what happened in the past two weeks, especially since we did not breach the agreement we had with the dean of the university, and number two, and most importantly, the immediate unconditional release of the Brother who was detained, Ali Barakat, third year in the Faculty of Commerce. Third, a guarantee that this will not be repeated after a formal apology from whoever was responsible for what happened today at Cairo University," he said. In the past month, four journalists were handed jail terms for defaming President Hosni Mubarak, an editor was put on trial for reporting on rumors over Mubarak's health, and the Brotherhood was barred from hosting its annual Ramadan dinner. Some 40 Brotherhood members, including a top leader, are on trial in a military court on charges including terrorism and money laundering in proceedings rights groups including Amnesty International have dismissed as unfair. More than 120 other Brotherhood men are in jail. There has been a muted international response to the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in contract to the heavy diplomatic pressure Egypt faced over its jailing of secular opposition politician Ayman Nour in 2005 and of sociologist Saadeddin Ibrahim in 2002.

ITN Source | October 3, 2007

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