Egypt students protest mass death sentences

CAIRO: Hundreds of largely university students in a number of universities protested Wednesday against the mass death sentences issued against more than 520 suspected supporters of President Muhammad Mursi in a cursory trial, setting off clashes that left dozens injured.
One person was killed near the university when protesters clashed with security forces, a Health Ministry official told Reuters. The official said eight were wounded.
At Cairo University, hundreds of students who attempted to take their protest outside the campus were met with volleys of tear gas from police. Khadiga El-Kholy, a student participating in the protest, said the police force gave no warnings before firing the tear gas, sending the students rushing back on campus.
Students responded by throwing stones and fireworks and hurling tear gas canisters back at the security forces in pitched street battles. TV footage showed security in civilian clothes detaining protesters and taking them away in blindfolds. There were also images of the security seizing firebombs from young protesters. El-Kholy said police fired birdshot at the protesters.
“We wanted to escalate our protest because of those death sentences, which included university students,” she said, adding that the protesters had sought to move into a nearby public square outside the campus. “We want to break the barriers that the security forces have imposed on all the squares.”
In the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, police said students damaged the facade of an administrative building in the local university and clashed with rival students, prompting to security forces to enter the campus and arrest eight rioters.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s state news agency says the country’s chief prosecutor has ordered two new mass trials for 919 suspects on charges that include murder.