CAIRO - Egypt’s Highest Administrative Court Saturday upheld a previous ruling to ban police officers from patrolling Cairo University, Egypt’s largest public university.
"The court sustains the previous ruling to ban police guards from entering the campus of Cairo University and cancels a decision by the Interior Ministry to form University Police Guards Units," said Chief Judge Mohamed Abdel Ghani.
He added that the verdict was irreversible. "The Egyptian policemen should be
busy with maintaining security across the nation. However, on the campus they could hamper the academic message.
There presence on the campus violates the Constitution," Abdel Ghani said.
The decision is applicable to all universities across the nation, according to legal experts.
The case was brought by a group of Cairo University professors claiming the presence of police on campuses violated the Egyptian Constitution, which protects the independence of universities.
"This landmark ruling will lead to the relaxation of security measures at other State universities," Abdel Galil Moustafa, a university professor who filed the lawsuit, told The Egyptian Gazette by phone.
"This is one step towards achieving independence of Egyptian universities and respect for the academic freedom," Moustafa added.
Under the ruling, the university administration must deploy civilians rather than Interior Ministry personnel as security guards. Campus police have been a pervasive presence at governmental universities in Egypt since the introduction of the State of Emergency in 1981.
"This ruling will put an end to the frequent intervention of security men in academic affairs," Moustafa said.
Moustafa is a member of the March 9 Movement, a protest group of Cairo University lecturers, who press for university independence and academic freedom.
"The police on the campus have been one of the key reasons for the decline in standards of Egyptian universities," said the professor, a former co-ordinator of the protest group Kefaya (Enough).
The Interior Ministry had no immediate comment on the ruling.
Minister of Higher Education Hani Hilal said his ministry would implement the ruling as soon as they recieve its executive formula. "Sure, the universities will implement the ruling once we recieve it.
A panel will be formed to examine the civilian security personnel each university needs," Hilal said.
The verdict was issued days after an Islamist female student was reportedly attacked by a police guard in Zaqaziq, some 80km north of Cairo.
