The Russian students detained by police in Egypt were questioned on the subject of extremism

The Russian students, mostly from the Caucuses, detained in Egypt were questioned on the subject of their participation in extremist groups, said Asvad Harikhanov, one of the arrested students and the resident of Chechnya speaking today to the "Caucasion Knot" correspondent.

Harikhanov said that he was arrested on May 27. "They knocked on the door, asked me to get into a police bus. They did not give any reason for the detention. Apart from me there were 10 to 15 people in the bus, mostly the Chechens and Dagestanis," he said.

Harikhanov admitted that during the arrest he was treated politely. The problems started in the prison. There were about 30 people in a small stuffy cell. There was also a woman, Yaha Hamzayeva, with a one-year-old baby and an elderly man who felt unwell.

After Harikhanov presented the required documents, he was released. Several more people were released at the same time with him. At present 15 people still remain in the prison.

Harikhanov said that several people detained in Egypt would be soon deported to Russia as they were found to hold passports with expired visas. Harikhanov cannot explain the reason for his detention. "They say about the US President's visit to Egypt, by what does it have to do with us? They write the passports are to be checked, but I've been here for eleven years. Both my and other students' passport details have been held by the Egyptian special services for a long time. They know quite where we live and what we do," said Harikhanov.

He added that such police raids are conducted rather often in Cairo, the last one took place two months ago when 20 people from Northern Caucuses were detained and released on the third day without explanation.

Another student, Amin Magomedov, described how his friend Magomed was arrested. He heard a knock on the door at 1 a.m. When he opened the door, the armed policemen rushed into the room. They put him on the floor, searched the room and then put him on a police truck that was already filled with other students. They also seized the computers and books belonging to the detained people. Almost all detainees were foreigners, mostly Dagestanis, Ingushes, and Chechens. They told Magomed that if somebody was too slow to open the door, it was simply knocked out.

In early morning, all detainees were brought to a police station where they were divided into three groups and placed into three prison cells. There were 82 detainees including 4 women. The treatment was satisfactory, the detainees were offered 3 meals a day but were unable to go outside and contact diplomatic services. For this reason a hunger strike was called that lasted two days and stopped after a number of demands had been met. Some students were interrogated, they were told that requests had been sent to the Russian special services in order to determine the degree of participation of the detainees in various extremist groups.