Egypt Govt Minister Denies Student Protester's Death

Egyptian Higher Education Minister Sayed Abdel-Khalek has dismissed as "rumors" the death on Tuesday of an Alexandria University student who succumbed to wounds sustained last week during clashes between student protesters and security forces.



"No one died [on Tuesday] at Alexandria University – it's all rumors," Abdel-Khalek told Anadolu Agency.



On Tuesday, law student Omar al-Sherif succumbed to a severe head injury he sustained last week when security forces – using teargas and birdshot – dispersed an anti-government protest at Alexandria University, according to eyewitnesses and medical sources.



The student's death, the first since the beginning of Egypt's new academic year, served to galvanize student protests at universities across the country.



The higher education minister also said that anti-government students would only be expelled as a "last resort" aimed at countering campus protests.



"We have issued strict decisions, like expelling some students, to prevent demonstrations," he said. "But we use expulsion as a last resort after trying to communicate [with the students]."



Abdel-Khalek denied that the Egyptian government had any intention on terminating its contract with local private security firm Falcon, members of which were forced to withdraw from university campuses during student protests last week.



"The company's mandate is concerned with security at university entrances only, not dealing with protests," Abdel-Khalek said.



He estimated that only between 2,000 and 3,000 Egyptian university students – out of some two million – had taken part in demonstrations since the outset of the school year on October 11.



Mahmoud al-Azhari, head of the "Students against the Coup" campaign, which was established in the wake of president Mohamed Morsi's ouster by the army, said a group of students had staged a brief demonstration on Tuesday outside Prosecutor-General Hisham Barakat's private residence.



Protesters, Al-Azhari said, had demanded the release of Al-Azhar University student Alia Tarek, who the group says has been held at an unknown location since being arrested outside Al-Al-Azhar's Cairo campus on Monday.



Egyptian security officials were not immediately available for comment.



Since the new school year began last week, university students across Egypt have stage demonstrations, organized mainly by the "anti-coup" students' campaign.



Student protesters complain of a fresh wave of arrests of politically-active students, along with the continued detention of thousands of others, many of whom have been held by authorities since last summer.



Universities across Egypt were overwhelmed by protests during the first week of the new academic year last week, amid stepped-up campus security measures.



The previous academic year, which began shortly after Morsi's ouster by the army and the onset of a deadly crackdown on the ousted leader's supporters, saw a wave of university protests that left several students dead and scores in detention.



Many students who had taken part in the protests have since been expelled by their respective universities.



By Hagar al-Dosoki



englishnews@aa.com.tr



www.aa.com.tr/en - Kahire