DNE: Harassed journalists file complaints against Ain Shams University

Harassed journalists file complaints against Ain Shams University

By Liam Stack
First Published: October 29, 2007

CAIRO: Two journalists have filed a series of complaints against both campus security at Ain Shams University and its president, Ahmed Zaki Badr, and say that guards obstructed them from reporting on student demonstrations last week, blocking one man’s entrance to the campus and violently beating another who made it inside.

Aboul Seoud Mohamed, a journalist with Al-Masry Al-Youm, says that security forces barred him from entering the campus when he went to cover the demonstrations protesting vote-rigging and state interference in student body elections.

“I gave the security officers at the gates my card saying that I am a journalist and a member of the syndicate, but they said that I couldn’t enter unless I had a special pass,” Mohamed told Daily News Egypt. “I knew this wasn’t right, so I called the President of the University, Ahmed Zaki Badr, and he said he would send someone from the public relations (PR) office down to escort me in to the campus.

“I waited for two hours and no one came,” he added. “I called the president’s office and the PR office again and again and no one ever came down.”

While he stood waiting outside the university, Mohamed says he saw Amr Sharaf, a photographer from Al Dostour, come stumbling out. He had been badly beaten.

“He was badly hurt and had wounds on his head,” says Mohamed. “He said he had been beaten by a police officer.

“We tried to take a picture of Amr Sharaf and his wounds but the security officers said we couldn’t because it would tarnish the reputation of the university.”

Sharaf could not be reached for comment at press time, but according to reports published in Al-Masry Al-Youm he was beaten with clubs by campus police and a mob of plainclothes officers until he lost consciousness. He was later hospitalized at Ain Shams University Hospital.

According to the complaint, the two have accused Ahmed Helmy, an officer with campus security, and President Ahmed Zaki Badr of illegally denying Mohamed access to the grounds of the university.

Sherif Kadry, another officer with campus security, stands accused of smashing Sharaf’s camera and assaulting him along with a number of unidentified plainclothes agents.

Security was on high alert on the day of the demonstrations, which witnesses say drew 500 student activists to the campus to chant slogans against both the Mubarak regime and university president Ahmed Zaki Badr, son of a former Interior Minister.

Students complain that university officials loyal to the ruling National Democratic Party intervened in student elections, disqualifying candidates seen as not being loyal enough to the government. Islamist candidates in particular were barred from running for seats in the student union.

Such tactics are a common feature of Egypt’s annual student elections, as the government tries to ensure that student unions at the nation’s largest
universities do not become a platform for opposition groups.

Protests and clashes erupted at several universities after last week’s elections, with students across the country complaining that votes were being rigged by state security forces and NDP loyalists within university administrations.

In Zagazig University alone, located at the delta town of Zagazig, the university disqualified more than 500 students from running for office based on their perceived political affiliation.