Al-Azhar University's Tanta branch on Sunday suspended 15 students affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), considered Egypt's largest opposition group, for a six-week period. The students, who had been studying at the faculties of religious fundamentals and Islamic Law, said they planned to file a lawsuit against the university. They say they were suspended for launching an on-campus anti-smoking campaign. In a related development, 18 MB members in Fayoum were remanded into custody for 15 days pending investigation on charges of possessing leaflets "promoting the ideology of a banned group." Although it currently controls roughly one fifth of the seats in Egypt's parliament, the MB has been formally banned by the state since the mid-1950s. Three other MB students were also remanded into custody for 15 days in Alexandria for allegedly assaulting faculty members. In Beheira, ten members of the group were released by court order after having been arrested for staging demonstrations in solidarity with Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, while a court in Zagazig ordered the release of four MB members arrested on similar charges. In Menoufiya, meanwhile, MB parliamentarian Abdel Fattah Eid submitted an interpellation to Interior Minister Habib el-Adly demanding an investigation into the recent arrest of seven MB-affiliated students for organizing a concert on campus. The students claim they were beaten while in custody by a police officer named Ahmed el-Sayyad. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
