(Photo by: Ahmed Arab)
The administration of AlexandriaUniversity filed a report on Monday to the prosecutor general against 36 university students, referring them to investigation and accusing them of sabotage and incitement.
Students nationwide organised protests on Sunday entitled ‘The day of student rage’. The students raised a set of demands aimed at bettering university education nationwide.
The legal affairs committee of the Faculty of Engineering released a statement saying that 36 students were referred to investigation, said Hakeem Abdel Naeem, a student at AlexandriaUniversity. Abdel Naeem added that the committee did not reveal the names of students referred to investigation.
“They told the students the names would be made public within a couple of days,” he said. “It seems like a rumour incited by the committee.”
Eleven of those reported are students at the Faculty of Engineering, including student union head Mohab Yosri. Yosri is a member of the Al-Tayar Al-Sha’aby (Popular Current) student movement. Mohamed Mustafa, an Al-Tayar Al-Sha’aby student member from AinShamsUniversity, said that the reported students include 11 members of Al-Tayar Al-Sha’aby.
“We don’t understand why reports were filed against those students in particular,” said Heba Yassin, Al-Tayar Al-Sha’aby spokesperson. “They have done nothing to warrant such accusations.”
In a statement released on Monday, the Faculty of Engineering’s student union stated that the students referred to investigation were not involved in Sunday’s protests, adding that some of the reported students were not in the faculty at the time of the protests.
“This is an attempt to terrorise students and deter them by any means possible,” the statement read. They condemned the university’s desire to involve the police in internal student affairs, describing the university as “taking the problem out of its context”.
The student union vowed to stand by the reported students regardless of the consequences. They also stressed the importance of punishing those responsible for supplying the administration with the names of the students wrongly referred to investigation.
