(Photo courtesy of Facebook)
Eighteen students arrested two weeks ago following clashes at Al-Mansoura University were released on Sunday.
The students were caught up in clashes that erupted after students were attacked by unknown assailants as they held a sit-in at the Al-Mansoura University campus.
All students were released on EGP 1,000 bail, said Medhat Michel, a lawyer in Al-Mansoura working with the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE). One minor detainee, Omar Tawfiq, was handed over to his parents.
Most of the arrested students belonged to the Ahrar group, allegedly composed of supporters of disqualified presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail. At least five students arrested were from Cairo University. They were accused of rioting and attacking security personnel and students.
Mustafa Saad, deputy head of the Cairo University student union, said: “If it weren’t for the pressure student unions put on the deputy prosecutor general, they wouldn’t have been released.”
He stated that the Faculty of Engineering’s student union in Cairo University visited the deputy prosecutor general to demand the students’ release.
Twenty-one students were arrested on 10 April, Michel said. Three students were released earlier.
Violence broke out during a protest calling for the dismissal of university president Al-Sayed Abdel Khaleq and for investigations into the death of Gehad Moussa, a student who was run over by a car on campus on 2 April.
