(Photo by Ahmed Al-Malky)
One hundred and fourteen students, including 29 high-school students, were detained on the third anniversary of the 25 January Revolution, the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) said Sunday.
The count was based on the information provided by the Front to Defend Egypt’s Protesters, a coalition of rights groups which provides legal assistance to detainees. The association noted that the numbers do not include all the arrested students because security apparatuses “were being uncooperative”, adding that the number of the detained students “could exceed 200”.
Interim President Adly Mansour had previously called on Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat to release the students who had been investigated and proven innocent, but according to the statement no action has yet been taken in the matter.
The association reiterated its call for the prosecutor general to reconsider the status of such “innocent” students detained on the anniversary of the revolution to “avoid negatively affecting their future.”
According to Mohamed Abdel Salam, a researcher at AFTE Student Observatory, “around 700 students are being detained from the wave of violence in Egyptian universities during last semester. These students were not able to take their midyear examinations, and with the detainees of 25 January, the list only keeps getting bigger with no resolution.”