( AFP FILE PHOTO / KHALED DESOUKI)
Egypt’s security situation is improving after over 10,000 people were detained since January, assistant to the Minister of Interior, Abdel Fattah Uthman, was quoted as saying in state-owned news agency MENA.
The arrests were made for “rioting” and belonging to “terrorist organisations”, Uthman said.
Uthman added that the Muslim Brotherhood is “down to its last bits” and “will not escape punishment”, while the state’s security devices have “thwarted its diabolical schemes”.
Uthman told MENA that police forces have so far arrested: 6,400 “rioters”; 2,600 accused of “attacking police stations”; 460 on terrorism charges; and 119 for administering Facebook pages that “incite against the military and police”.
Although numbers are contested, independent rights groups and data-bases say that security forces have detained over 41,000 people since 3 July, 2013, a figure presented on WikiThawra.
Uthman said “on-campus” security has also seen an improvement and that police forces do not wish to enter university campuses once again, but cannot leave universities without guards.
“Whoever has been following up on the security situation on university campuses over this academic year will notice a decline in on-campus violence compared to last year,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), an independent organisation documenting police violence against students, said in a Saturday report that on-campus security violations against students have continued.
“Praise be to God that no university students have fallen this year, while last year saw the fall of several students who were killed or injured due to the Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘satanic’ terrorist acts and their sneaky attempts to damage the relationship between the police and the students,” Uthman said.
Since the start of this academic year on 11 October, security forces have arrested 300 students. University presidents have also expelled tens or referred them to investigation for political reasons, according to AFTE.
Police also killed one student, Omar Al-Sharif, in the Alexandria University campus in October.
The hundreds of civilians referred to military courts following President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s decree to expand the jurisdiction of military courts also include tens of students.
According to HRW, at least 820 civilians have been referred to military prosecution over the past six weeks.
Uthman added that the Minister of Interior, Mohamed Ibrahim cooperated with the Minister of Higher Education and the heads of several Egyptian universities to implement certain security measures on campuses. University deans signed contracts with the security company, Falcon, at the beginning of the academic year.
