173 Student of Cairo Ubiversity Banned From Taking Final Exam.

Cairo University

Head of Cairo University Gaber Nassar has banned 173 students from taking their final exams due to alleged links to violent clashes at the university, Al-Ahram’s Arabic news website reported.

The 173 students were suspended after an investigation proved their involvement in clashes that have frequently taken place at the university since the start of the academic term last August.

On Wednesday, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Universities issued a decision allowing all detained students to take their final exams while waiting for upcoming trials.

It was also reported that around 38 students at Cairo University currently under investigation will be allowed to take their final exams.

Nassar told Al-Ahram that a group of students had appealed the university’s decision to suspend them and that they would be allowed to take their exams, but without the guarantee that they would receive marks.

In March, a group from Cairo University’s student union met interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab to ask for the release of 1,321 detained students.

Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour asked the prosecutor-general’s office in January to hasten the release of all detained university students not involved in illegal activities.

The ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July of last year and the deadly dispersal of two sit-ins demanding his return in August prompted Morsi’s supporters, including students, to protest against what they see as a coup against an elected president.

The student protests often turned violent, with pro-Morsi students vandalising university buildings in a number of incidents and torching police vehicles, drawing security forces who have dispersed the demonstrations with tear gas and birdshot.

Meanwhile, protests broke out on Wednesday in two private universities in Cairo against jail sentences handed out this week to their colleagues.