Egypt government committing rights violations at universities: NGO

A non-governmental organization (NGO) in Egypt says the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi has committed numerous human rights violations against students and professors at the country’s universities, Press TV reports.

According to a report released by Egypt’s Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), which was published on Saturday, the Cairo government has perpetrated various crimes since Sisi ascended to power in 2014 after orchestrating a military coup against former President Mohamed Morsi a year earlier.

The report said that at least three students were killed inside Egyptian universities during the past academic year.

The NGO also reported the expulsion of at least 500 students for the mere expression of their opinion, noting that police forces stormed into university campuses several times to suppress anti-government student protests.

The AFTE also documented several cases where university professors were arrested or expelled for expressing their opinion, saying that universities in Egypt have become a “military institution.”

The Egyptian association added that hundreds of students and dozens of academics have been transferred to military courts over the past year.

The group also highlighted abnormal increase over the past year in the crackdown on leading academics, and in the punishment of young protesters by either detaining them or indicting them in “sham trials.”

Sit-in against journalists’ detention

Meanwhile, the families of two detained Egyptian journalists are set to start an open ended sit-in inside the premises of Egypt’s Press Syndicate in the capital, Cairo, on Sunday.

The protest will be held by the family members of Mohamed al-Battawy, a reporter at the state-run Akhbar al-Youm, who was arrested over 10 days ago, as well as the relatives of Mahmoud Shawkan, who say the freelance journalist’s health condition has deteriorated significantly during his almost two-year-detention period.

Battawy is accused of having links with the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt, while Shawkan faces charges of allegedly participating in an act of violence in August, 2013.

Dozens of opposition figures and other journalists from different backgrounds have reportedly been killed, arrested and tried in civilian or military courts under Sisi’s rule.

A year after Morsi’s overthrow, Sisi, Egypt’s former military chief, campaigned for and won the country’s presidency in controversial elections in June 2014.

The Sisi government has been cracking down on opposition since Morsi was ousted, banning the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

On Friday, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), a Cairo-based rights group, revealed that as many as 269 people have lost their lives in Egyptian custody since the 2013 ouster of Morsi.

Earlier in June, Human Rights Watch issued a report, dubbed “Egypt: Year of Abuses Under Sisi,” criticizing “flagrant abuse of human rights” under the rule of Sisi.

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