Student dies in Al-Azhar University clashes

One student died Thursday night when clashes broke out again between students and security forces in Al-Azhar University, Ahmed Ansary the head of the ambulance authority told the Middle East News Agency (MENA).

A group called Azhar Students Against the Coup confirmed the news in a statement identifying the victim as sixth year medical student Abdel Ghany Hamouda. Ansary said the student died of pellet wounds to his head.

Sixth year medicine faculty student union member Ibrahim Darwish who witnessed Hamouda’s death wrote on his Twitter account that the victim was in the field hospital set up inside the university dorms being treated for suffocation from tear gas when police forces stormed the field hospital and shot him after everyone else fled.

Protests and clashes with police forces resumed in the past two days as part of wave of protests that started since the resumption of classes at Al-Azhar University against the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi and the crackdown on Brotherhood supporters.

Clashes have regularly erupted throughout the past month between the protesting students and police forces. Dozens of arrests have been made among the students.

Within a few days of their referral to court on charges of attempting to storm Al-Azhar, thuggery, vandalism, assault on public employees, illegal assembly, 12 Azhar students were sentenced to 17 years in prison in what was widely condemned to be an excessively harsh verdict. Their appeal will be heard in three months.

The university board issued a statement on Wednesday banning protests on campus and called on the Ministry of the Interior to enforce its decision. Students condemned the administration’s statement for implicitly condoning the use of violence.

The statement justified the decision to call on the Ministry of the Interior by saying that it is necessary in the face of what it described as barbaric actions and violent attacks from the students that targeted Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh and university officials.

A misdemeanor court is scheduled to issue a verdict Thursday in the case of 40 Azhar students accused of illegal assembly and assault on security forces.