The armed forces late on Wednesday broke up a sit-in by Cairo University communications students who have been calling for the resignation of Dean Sami Abdel Aziz. Armored vehicles entered the university campus and students said military police detained some of them for half an hour. The students had earlier moved their demonstration to the fourth floor of the College of Mass Communications, prompting University Preident Hossam Kamel to summon the military, which ended the sit-in using tazers, according to eyewitnesses. Military police also detained professors Ashraf Saleh, Mahmoud Khalil and Sherif Darwish for two hours, in an apparent attempt to make them convince students to end the demonstration. One of the military police scuffled with Khalil, who charged them with violating international agreements that ban soldiers from campuses, eyewitnesses said. The sit-in was disbanded hours after the government passed a law criminalizing protests that hinder work at public or private establishments. Under the new law anyone inciting, promoting or participating in a protest can receive a jail sentence and/or a fine of LE500,000. The new law will be enforced as long as the current Emergency Law is in place, the cabinet said in a statement Wednesday. Since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February, Egypt has witnessed nationwide labor strikes and political protests.
