Egypt detains students on terror charges over support for Palestine

Egypt’s Supreme State Security Prosecution has detained two students for 15 days as a precautionary measure pending investigations over their support for a new student movement for Palestine. Mazen Ahmed and Ziad Al-Basiouni, were forcibly disappeared last week before appearing on Monday before the State’s Security Prosecution, according to their families.

On 5 May, a statement signed by a new movement called “Egyptian Students for Palestine” was circulated on social media, calling on all students across the country to join. The statement demanded that the education ministry boycott all products and companies that they say are “supportive of the crimes of Israeli occupation”.

In a second statement, the group demanded that Palestinian students in Egypt be exempted from tuition fees. In a third, they denounced Israel’s invasion of Rafah city.

The Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR) has called on the Egyptian authorities to review their “shameful stance regarding the continued detention of dozens of Egyptian citizens supporting the Palestinian cause, who are being held in pre-trial detention on various charges, and to release them immediately.”

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