Egypt: Court rules in favour of students and orders police off university campuses

A High Court ruling in Egypt has issued a law ordering the government to remove all police forces from university campuses. The police control access to the campus and can deny entry to visitors and the media.

A recent appeal by the government was rejected in court; the government protested against an earlier ruling that declared the permanent deployment of police on campuses unconstitutional.

Rights groups have condemned the continued police presence and security on campuses, believing that their deployment was solely to prevent students from engaging in politics or participating in student body elections. The main reason behind the police presence is to suppress and intimidate students affiliated to opposition groups, particularly the popular Muslim Brotherhood and Leftists, and stop them from voicing their opinions. The most recent incident of oppression was in Zagazig University where one MB student, Somaya Ashraf, was attacked by security officials and police after refusing to be searched by male officers and was subjected to a beating which resulted in internal bleeding. The attack was widely condemned both in Egypt and abroad.

 A broad coalition of activists and professors had initially brought the case against the government where they called for the independence of academic institutions.

Although the court ruling is final, to circumvent the law the government may still use emergency powers, as it has done in the past.