Cairo - Dr. Mohammed Al-Maharsawi, dean of Al-Azhar University, said during a press conference held at the university on Monday, commenting on the reported arrest of 500 Uyghur students studying at Al-Azhar, that the news are "sheer lies and baseless rumors". He added that the reports show that the security authorities have arrested only 70 Uyghur students, and that the investigations proved that about 50 students from among the arrested are not students at Al-Azhar University. Al-Maharsawi noted that the students who were arrested do not have legal residence documentations, adding that Egypt's security authorities have every right to verify the papers of their entry into Egypt. "It is the right of concerned parties, to check the legal situation of residents from different nationalities in Egyptian territories and that they do not represent any danger to the national security of the country, nor are they involved in crimes inside or outside the country. It added that such measures are continuous and periodical," he said. "The security authorities had deported a number of international students studying in Al-Azhar, who were unable to attain legal documents allowing them to stay in the country. After their papers were reviewed and checked to determine their legal status in Egypt, they were sent back to China, immediately. The exact number was only 50 students," confirmed Al-Maharsawi. Human rights and Uyghur exile groups have condemned China for violating the rights of the Uyghurs and for breaking a United Nations treaty. On the heels of the arrest, Al-Azhar, the world's foremost Sunni Islam institution, said in a statement that no Uyghur students had been arrested on the university's grounds or while in any buildings connected with the school.
