(AFP Photo)
Prosecution has ordered the detention of a total of 12 detainees for 15 days, arrested in 3 separate cases, in decisions on Saturday.
Giza Prosecution ordered the renewed detention of two Cairo University students for 15 days while they are being investigated. The two were arrested on the background of protests in Cairo University on 16 May.
Charges against them include “belonging to a group founded in violation of the law and the constitution that aims to disrupt citizens’ interests,” human rights group the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) said. Other charges the two detainees face include protesting without a permit, attacking security forces and disturbing public peace.
On Friday, 16 May students at Cairo University organised marches in student dormitories, but were confronted by security forces who fired tear gas when they tried to exit the campus.
Another group of students had their detention renewed on Saturday. These three students had also been arrested last month on the background of student protests in Ain Shams University. On 13 May, protests on campus turned into deadly clashes, killing student Mohamed Ayman the next day as result of his injuries.
AFTE stated that the three students were “accused by prosecution of killing” Ayman, protesting without a permit, possessing weapons and ammunition while protesting, exhibiting a show of force and threatening the use of violence.
The third group is made up of seven detainees, who were handed 15 days by prosecution in the governorate of Fayoum. An eighth person who was arrested with this group was ordered released on an EGP 5,000 bail; he suffers from a broken leg.
Charges they face include belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, protesting without a permit, disrupting traffic and assaulting police personnel.
They were arrested on Friday and are among 59 people who were arrested that day from Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Fayoum, Assiut and Damietta.
Egypt witnesses protests almost every Friday by supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, who view him as the legitimate president of the nation and reject the current interim authorities. The Anti-Coup Alliance, the largest pro-Morsi opposition bloc, frequently organises marches that gather from various mosques around the country.
University campuses have also been restive since Morsi’s ouster and this academic year has been one of the most violent in Egypt’s recent history. More than a dozen students have died since the beginning of the year, hundreds have been arrested and many were tried and sentenced to jail time.
The one charge all three groups of detainees have in common, protesting without a permit, has become an official criminal act after the controversial and infamous Protest Law was issued by Interim President Adly Mansour in November.
