Egyptians in Hong Kong deplore violence in homeland
Ahmed Said, 26, a Hong Kong University of Science and Technology PhD student, went to Tahrir Square in Cairo to be part of the peaceful protest against the new military government after the ousting of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Mursi on July 3. He said police fired randomly into the crowd.
A Hong Kong-based Egyptian student yesterday told how he had witnessed at first hand some of the violence in his homeland.
Ahmed Said, 26, a Hong Kong University of Science and Technology PhD student, went to Tahrir Square in Cairo to be part of the peaceful protest against the new military government after the ousting of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Mursi on July 3. He said police fired randomly into the crowd.
Said returned to Hong Kong on Friday, still badly shaken.
"They used tear gas and fired into the crowd of protesters when all we were doing was making a peaceful protest," he said. "Explosions went off and people were injured. This is what is happening every day despite the fact we are only staging peaceful demonstrations."
Abedelrahman Heguzi, an Egyptian PhD student at the University of Hong Kong, said 13 of his friends were being held in prisons in Cairo and Alexandria over their involvement in similar protests.
"Many of my friends are liberal-thinking people. Some are even Christians, but they were put in jail just for standing up for their own human rights," he said.