GUC students to appeal expulsion for protesting death of fellow student

A group of German University (GUC) students are set to appeal a decision to expel them for protesting after the death of a student who was fatally crushed by university buses last March.

A university disciplinary council expelled Karim Naguib, deputy of the student union, and suspended Hazem Abdel Khalek, head of the student union for a year and half. Four other students were also suspended for a year and a half.

Another student, Alaa al-Attar, cannot use university services for two years. 

Fatma Serag, a lawyer with the academic freedoms program at the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), told Mada Masr that they will appeal the decision at the disciplinary council and if the university doesn’t retract its decision, they will take it up with the State Council.

According to a statement issued by the disciplinary council on July 30, the students were reprimanded for acts of violence and rioting, as well as disrupting exams and assaulting students and members of staff.

GUC students had staged a sit-in following Yara Negm’s death, protesting against the administration’s negligence and calling for a series of new safety measures. Negm was crushed between two student buses and bled to death before the university ambulance arrived at the scene.

A video had circulated at the time showing an altercation between some students and GUC’s president as they surrounded his car for a few minutes. 

Ten students were summoned by the prosecution, but only Abdel Khalek, Naguib and Attar turned themselves in. They were detained for four days pending investigations and then released.

Following the incident, eyewitnesses told Mada Masr that Abdel Khalek wasn’t even at the scene when students confronted the president in his car and that Naguib was the one who instructed students to form a cordon around the car and told them not to touch it.

According to the disciplinary council’s statement, the decision was taken based on the evidence presented and punishments were reduced for students who admitted their mistakes and apologized.   

Naguib and Abdel Khalek also told Mada Masr that they will be taking legal action against the decision.  

Naguib said this isn’t the first time the German University makes “arbitrary decisions” against students, referring to a similar incident in 2012, when students were expelled for taking part in a protest against their colleague Karim Khozam’s death in the Port Said stadium massacre.

Khozam was one of at least 72 people killed in violence that ensued following a football game in February 2012 in Port Said.

Serag, who was also involved in the case in 2012, explained that the university expelled four students in 2012, but reduced the punishment to a two-week suspension after the issue was raised with the Administrative Court.

The court ultimately annulled the decision to suspend them for two weeks altogether, as there were legal loopholes and no clear disciplinary bylaws.

“We just want a safe space for the students,” Naguib said. “This wasn’t political, this was based on human rights.”

Abdel Khalek raised questions about the process involved in deciding to expel students.

He explained that following the events, a special “crisis management” department was formed to investigate such incidents.

He said that students were summoned for questioning, with sessions ranging between 3–6 hours, before they were referred to the disciplinary council.

Abdel Khalek said that action was taken against some of the students who were not referred to the disciplinary council or investigated by the crisis management department.

He also said that he and Naguib were prevented from entering campus on Thursday, before investigations were over and any decision was issued.

“This is a personal vendetta,” Abdel Khalek said. “We were only doing this [staging a sit-in] to get the rights of a girl, since the university didn’t do so.”