Students protesting inside the main administrative building of the British University in Egypt (BUE), Wednesday 30 April 2014 (Photo: Revolutionary Socialists' official Facebook page)
The Revolutionary Movement at the Cairo-based British University in Egypt (BUE) organised a protest on Wednesday over five of the university's students being sentenced this week to five years in prison and hefty fines.
Four of the convicted students were ordered to pay fines of LE100,000, said Abu Zeid, who coordinates the Revolutionary Movement's protests at the university.
He said that one of the sentenced students is a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and has participated in the Islamist group's demonstrations. However, he denied that the others have the same political affiliation.
"They were just passing beside a Brotherhood protest" when they were arrested, he said.
Meanwhile, an administrative source at the BUE – located in an east Cairo suburb along the Cairo-Suez road – said that the five students have not been expelled and will take their exams while in jail.
According to Abu Zeid, the students were convicted on charges of illegal protesting, blocking roads, belonging to a terrorist group and attempting to murder a police officer.
Further information about the students' trial and conviction has not yet been released.
The student protest at the BUE on Wednesday began from the university's main administrative building and the faculties of engineering, dentistry and pharmacy, Abu Zeid said. He added that the protests later passed through the rest of the campus.
Abu Zeid mentioned that the protesting students had succeeded in entering the BUE's auditorium, located inside the main administrative building, after a verbal altercation with the university's security personnel.
The protesters are currently holding a sit-in inside another administrative building that includes the BUE's library and admission office.
"The BUE's security employees told us that we couldn't stay after 4pm, but we've already threatened to escalate and resume our strike by next week," he said.
Although admitting that the university cannot be blamed for the five students' convictions, Abu Zeid claimed that the BUE allows police forces to enter its campus, which poses a risk for protesting students.
Abu Zeid's student-run protest group is, he says, against Egypt's current government and has called for the repeal of the country's protest law and an end to allegations of torture in prisons, demands that are shared with many other student groups at universities both public and private nationwide.
Egypt's universities have been the scene of recurring student protests since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last August.
A recent controversial court ruling allowing police back on campuses despite a previous court ban in 2010 has fuelled fears of security forces being allowed freer rein on university grounds.
However, Egypt's Higher Education Minister Wael El-Degwy said last month that police will not enter campuses unless requested by university presidents, assuring that only administrative security guards will be stationed inside.
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