Student dies from injuries following Alexandria University clashes

Alexandria University student Omar Sherif died from his injuries after a week in hospital, following clashes with police at the university last week, the Aswat Masriya portal reported on Tuesday.

Sherif, a second year student at the Faculty of Engineering, died days after he was hit with birdshot in the face during clashes between security forces and students.

According to Aswat Masriya, three other students were injured in the clashes, and 30 were arrested.

Sherif is the first student to die in clashes this academic year. Last year, violence on university campuses between students and police led to more than 14 student deaths.

According to Aswat Masriya, students from Alexandria University organized a protest to denounce Sherif's death and to demand justice.

Roshdy Zahran, vice president of Alexandria University, told Aswat Masriya that the birdshot came from members of the Muslim Brotherhood not the police, in an attempt to heighten tension between students and security.

“We were shocked to hear the news,” Baher Adel, vice-president of Alexandria University Student Union told Mada Masr. Adel added that Sherif's death worries them, because the 30 arrested students have been accused of causing his death.

Adel only sees escalation of the situation from now on. “The protests won’t stop. There is no more fear. We have surpassed this already.” He thinks the escalation of violence during this academic year is the result of an unprecedented crackdown on the university, although he says the political base on campus has been weakened. He blamed the police invasion of campus last week, when a professor was asked to lie on his belly and students were held at gun point and arrested randomly for having beards. “This is all new … heavy oppression,” he says.

The academic year kicked off in October with a series of clashes between police and students at several universities across the country. Despite the government’s attempt to outsource the securitization of campuses to a private company, the clashes grew beyond the company’s scope and police returned to the forefront of the confrontation.

Although university clashes last year followed the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, Adel thinks that today the confrontations are not because of a strong Brotherhood presence on campus, but rather because students are resisting the general crackdown and the arrests of fellow students.