Court may return police to campuses

The Administrative Court was to review a case requesting the return of university guards to campuses Tuesday. The review comes amid worsening university unrest and a heavy police response, including the arrest of more than 100 students.

Police have been barred from entering university campuses since a 2010 administrative court verdict. Tuesday’s case was put forward by Mortada Mansour, a well-known lawyer and former member of Parliament under deposed President Hosni Mubarak.

Hundreds gathered at Al-Azhar University in Nasr City Tuesday, blocking access to the College of Education in protest against the use of force by police and the calling of students before disciplinary boards.

On Monday, 144 students were arrested, according to the Interior Ministry. University officials had asked police to enter the campus in response to the protests. Tear gas and birdshot were used, and one student was sent to hospital for treatment of a suspected pellet wound.

“Security personnel will exert the maximum degree of patience for the violations of university students who support the Muslim Brotherhood and the legitimacy of the deposed President Mohamed Morsi, and will not let them sabotage the university,” Mahmoud Sobhy, a security official at Al-Azhar University, told the website of the state-owned daily Al-Ahram.

Mohamad Aboul Ghar, a professor of gynecology at Cairo University who helped bring the original case that barred police from campuses, told Mada Masr that overturning the case would not make a huge difference.

“When we filed these court cases the number of police was only two or three, and they were inside and harassing the students,” he said. The court case was primarily filed to prevent security services from interfering in academic affairs. The current protests at university campuses are of a different nature, Aboul Ghar said, adding that he doubted that the police presence would quell the protests.

“It won’t help. It won’t calm it down,” Aboul Ghar said. “I don’t think there is any reason to review the case.”