State Security Suppressive’ Heritage Continues in the Egyptian Universities ANHRI condemns the punishments of 4 students in Alexandria university due to their political activity
Cairo October 11, 2011
ANHRI condemns the continuation of security policies in the Totalitarian state that inherited from the age of the ousted dictator “Mubarak” inside the Egyptian universities. The university administration has issued a decree since a few days to dismiss two students in the Engineering Faculty for a month. They are “Osama Yahia and Mohamed Abdul-Salam”, in addition to refer the student of the same faculty “Mohamed Mostafa Abu Hadid to Disciplinary Board. It has also threatened the student in the Faculty of Art “Abdulhakim Abdulnaeem” to be punished due to their political activity inside the university as well as using their legitimate right to express their opinion.
The four students who belongs to the movement of revolutionary socialists have submit a memo to the university administration demanding to conduct investigation with the University Security commander and the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering in the fact of the assault committed by the security of Engineering Faculty in the Fair organized by students that showed the violations of authorities against the citizens in Mansour st., in addition to declare its refusal to have elections in accordance with the student regulations of 79 which is known by the regulation of the state security. Due to this memo the students were surprised by the administration act of punishing them for their political activity within the university instead of investigating the assault on their exhibition.
It should be noted that the Department of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alexandria had, earlier, criminalize the exercise of any political activity within the university and prohibited organizing demonstrations and the sit-ins in the campus assaulting the gains and the principles of the January 25 revolution.
ANHRI said that “the attack on the four students and the confiscation of their legitimate right to freedom of expression; aimed primarily to harass them and to punish them for their continued calls to allow the political activity in the university in addition to monitoring the education development budget and adoption of many demands aligned to the interests of the students in the university. It shows that the heritage of dissolved Egyptian State security Investigations in Egyptian universities still going on”.
ANHRI added that “the dissolved state security under the previous regime was working on depriving students from the political activity in the university to cover up the corruption of power and to protect their Police state which the Egyptians revolt against and now and at the beginning of the era’s first elected president, the same tool are used. That predicts the continued decline in public and personal freedoms, which were monitored during the first 100 days of Dr. Mohamed Morsi, term”.
While ANHRI expresses its solidarity with the demands and rights of students, it also emphasize the need to develop a new regulation that the students could participate in preparing it. In addition to, stop applying the Regulation no. 79, which was mainly drafted by the state security that the student movements repeatedly called to stop it.
ANHRI called the Alexandria University administration to review its position and to abolish the decision to punish the students for their peaceful activities and to investigate the responsible for the destroy their exhibition and punish the responsible.”
