CAIRO: The Minister of Interior issued a decree Saturday to release Ihab Atta, professor and graduate student at the American University in Cairo, who has been detained for two years, his colleagues said. Atta has allegedly been detained without charge. Atta s colleagues at AUC s Arabic Language Institute, who formed a committee campaigning against his detainment, celebrated the news of his release. I was receiving messages from ALI professors all night yesterday, my phone did not stop ringing, Fatma Mohamed, committee member, told Daily News Egypt on Sunday. A party is scheduled for Dec. 1 to celebrate Atta s release instead of the protest that was supposed to take place on the same day by the committee. A total of 35 faculty members from ALI made up the committee. Atta has been held in Wadi Al-Natroun Prison without a trial or charges for two years, they said. Reports suggest that he was put under State Security surveillance after attending a party in spring 2007 whose host had attempted to join a jihadi movement in Iraq. Atta was admitted to a hospital after his release to undergo a medical check up before going home.
