Egyptian embassy in Juba asked to work for return of stolen student properties from police  

JUBA – South Sudanese students who were recently deported from Egypt by authorities on orders of their embassy are asking the Egyptian embassy to make efforts in returning their properties they said were stolen by the police upon their detention.

In September, hundreds of South Sudanese students studying under government scholarships in Egypt camped at the Cairo embassy in Mahdi to demand intervention of the embassy after respective learning institutions informed them that they were admitted on partial scholarships.

The students’ sit-in at the embassy continued for several days, forcing Amb. Joseph Muom Majak to call in Egyptian police who then clashed with students wounding 9 students and arresting ten others who were detained for two weeks before deportation back to their country on the embassy’s request.

Speaking to Sudans Post in an interview in Juba on Tuesday, Bech Marial, a student leader who was studying medicine at Tanta University before deportation said their properties including phones, jewelries and other personal belongings were stolen by the Egyptian police during their detention and were not returned upon deportation.

“During our detention, all our properties were taken from us, our money, phones, jewelries, ATM Card, school IDs, residential permits and other accessories. After our release and heading to the airport where we were to be deported, we were told by the police that our properties which were taken upon our detention were missing,” Marial said.

Marial who said they were detained at a local police station in Mahdi where South Sudan embassy is located, said the looted properties range from phones, jewelries, residency cards, school ideas, belt and headset, among other things, are worth $1000.

He called on the Egyptian embassy in Juba to intervene before opening a police case in a bid to recover their properties which he said were taken from them by police officers out of their will upon detention and arrest from the embassy.

“We are calling upon the Egyptian embassy in South Sudan to consider our report and to take necessary steps so that our looted properties are returned to us immediately. Definitely, we are planning to go to court if the Egyptian embassy does not hear us,” he said.

“We did no crime in the land of Egypt, we were arrested from our territory in Cairo which is the embassy and as such, our properties should be returned to us because we have been forced to return to our country. We don’t blame the Egyptian police for the deportation because it did not come from them, but they should not steal our properties,” he added.