State Security Continues Kidnapping Al Fayyum University Students

Egyptian State Security kidnapped another student in front of Al Fayyum university. Student Mohamed Ahmed Saad, a second year student at the Faculty of Dar Al-Ulum was arrested on Wednesday morning Nov, 28th, 2007, while entering the university gate, raising to 13 the number detainees from Al Fayyum university students since the academic year started.
 
In a related context, the three students of the Faculty of Education who were kidnaped in front of the university after being beaten are still detained at Wadi Al-Natrun prison although the prosecution has released them one day after they were kidnapped, on Wednesday Oct, 24th, 2007. When Dr. Hani Hilal, the Minister of Higher Education, was speaking with Al Fayyum university students during his visit, Mohamed Mostafa Abdul Azim, a student in the Faculty of Education, asked him about the recurrent detentions of students inside the campus. This actually was the only cause of this student”s detention. He was sent to Wadi Al-Natrun prison along with Ali Mohamed Abdul Hasib, Ali Faragallah in addition to him, Mohamed Mostafa Abdul Azim.
 
For their part, Hassan Youssef Abdul Ghaffar and Kamal Al Din Nour Al-Din, both members of the Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc for constituencies of Al-Siddiq Youssef and Bandar Al Fayyum, submitted two urgent questions to Hani Hilal the Minister of Higher Education who declared during his visit to Al Fayyum university that no student have been and will never be kidnapped, underlining freedom of the university and its independence while students of Al Fayyum university have been beaten and detained before and after his visit. This made both MPs consider what the minister said as a deception to the public opinion because what he says is fully divorced from what is happening on the ground, including the daily woes facing students since the beginning of the academic year.
 
Both MPs denounced the intervention of the State Security Service in the university administration and imposing orders on deans, principals and the teaching staff members in a way that negatively affects the freedom and independence of the university. The MPs cited previous incidents in which eight students were arrested and five others were injured when state security officers and plainclothes elements were beating then inside the campus.
 
Both MPs dismissed the actions exercised against Muslim Brotherhood students who preach a moderate discourse, especially that the university witnessed a few activities since the holy month of Ramadan.
 
Nour Al-Din confirmed that the security service”s attempt to silence the students through aborting any a peaceful student work, especially those carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood students, pointing out that these exercises puts the university life in disarray and sends signals that the security fist is over the faculty board.