Imprisoned student Ayman Moussa may be allowed to attend father’s funeral: MOI source

Detained student Ayman Moussa may be let out of prison to attend his father’s funeral on Friday, an anonymous Interior Ministry source told the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram.

Moussa, a 21-year-old engineering student and athlete at the British University in Cairo, is serving a 15-year sentence at Wadi al-Natrun Prison. He was arrested with 62 others during the dispersal of a protest on October 6, 2013, in the vicinity of the Supreme Court building in downtown Cairo.

The defendants were convicted of killing 32 people in addition to other charges, including illegal possession of weapons and obstructing traffic. Five minors were sentenced to 10 years in prison in the case.

After Moussa’s father died on Tuesday, his family made a public plea to the Ministry of Interior to allow him to attend the burial on Thursday, but the ministry did not respond. Sympathizers with the imprisoned student launched a social media campaign called #سيبوا_ايمن_يدفن_ابوه (Let Ayman bury his father) to pressure officials to grant a temporary release.

Although Moussa missed the burial, procedures are now underway to move him from prison to attend funeral prayers in Cairo’s Heliopolis district on Friday, the unnamed source told Al-Ahram. However, the source said his release is contingent on the authorities’ ability to “to guarantee his safety and that of the security forces accompanying him.”