AFTE strongly condemns the undemocratic nomination of Ahmed Ayman El Markbi as students’ representative in the drafting committee of the new Egyptian constitution. The rationale behind his nomination was vague, not transparent and based on lies claiming that he was the chair of the Egyptian students’ parliament, while he is only a representative of the Mansoura parliament of El Mansoura students. According to Mostafa Ashraf from the Faculty of Medicine, EL Menya university El Marakbi was chosen since he was the son of the secretary general of the Freedom and Justice party in Damietta as well as the nephew of Dr. Mohamed Morsi, the secretary general of the party, a fact denied by both El Marakbi and his uncle. Ashraf added that he will contest the membership of El Marakbi and will demand compensation in view of the latter’s false claim that he was the chair of the students’ parliament nationwide.

AFTE condemns the consumed and nontransparent nature of ongoing High Education policies, regarding the sudden and unexpected ministerial decision to start procedures for student union elections nationwide based on the old students’ bylaws, resulting in a wave of anger that translated into a protest sit in at Cairo university and demonstrations in several Egyptian universities.

AFTE strongly condemns the arbitrary decision by the German university in Cairo to expel five students. Two of the students were permanently expelled, Amr Abdel Wahab and Hassan Othman Ziko, while the other three, Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, Mostafa Ahmed Eissa and Abdel Hamid Abu Zeid Abdel Hamid were expelled for two weeks, because of activities organized on campus. Those activities included a memorial service for their colleague Karim Khozam, a martyr of Port Said incidents, as well as chanting against the military.

AFTE strongly condemns the ministerial decree issued by the ministry of higher education yesterday endorsing new students bylaws, regulating students’ movements and activities inside Egyptian universities.

News leaking over the past few days that the minister of higher education was preparing the bylaws without the knowledge or consultation of students had stirred protest actions in several universities, example of which is the collective resignation of the student’s union of the faculty of medicine, Alexandria university protesting the minister’s intention to endorse the bylaws through a ministerial decree without a nationwide referendum among students.

The undersigned organizations strongly condemn the ongoing slandering and intimidation of civil society organizations, particularly human rights groups, and note that the referral of 43 Egyptian and foreign nationals to a criminal court is politically motivated. The affected institutions have been operating for several years without being asked to suspend their activities and without their offices being shut down. Moreover, in October the Egyptian government asked two of these organizations to monitor the parliamentary elections,