Cairo: Egypt’s top prosecutor, Hesham Barakat, on Wednesday ordered the release of 116 university students from detention after investigations cleared them of any alleged involvement in anti-government violence that has gripped the country since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi last year, judicial sources said.
“After checking the students’ cases, the prosecutor-general issued decisions for their release from temporary detention to protect their future,” one source said.
“Cases of other detained students will also be investigated before decisions are taken on them,” the source added on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The gesture is apparently aimed at defusing tensions among students in the run-up to the new academic year, which starts in Egypt on October 11. Authorities have stepped up security in universities, which were rocked by violent protests last year against the army’s overthrow of Mursi, a senior leader in the Muslim Brotherhood.
Thousands, including many university students, have been rounded up since his removal in July last year.
Students, mainly Islamists, have staged in recent months a string of protests, demanding Mursi’s reinstatement. The security crackdown has been the toughest targeting the Brotherhood’s leaders and followers since the group was created in 1928.
On Wednesday, a Cairo court sentenced 16 students on charges of involvement in violent protests at Al Azhar University.
The case is related to unrest that erupted earlier this year at Al Azhar, a stronghold of Islamists,
Lawyers for the defendants, who include four female students, protested following the ruling, saying the court issued it without allowing them to present their case. There was no comment from the court.
The verdict, which can be appealed, is the latest against Islamist students, convicted of damaging facilities and instigating riots at Al Azhar and its dormitories in anti-government protests.
