Release of Former Porter Ranch Resident Held in Egypt Hits Snag

UPDATE, 2 p.m., Friday: Students are finally released and heading to the airport.

UPDATE, 3 p.m.: The three American students have not been released as ordered by an Egyptian court, according to KNX radio. Instead, they are now being held in a cell where they have to sit and sleep on the floor, Kevin Sweeney, father of former Porter Ranch resident Derrik Sweeney, said. In addition, CNN is reporting that award-winning documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim has also been arrested.

UPDATE, 4:49 a.m.: "Three American university students arrested amid violent protests in Cairo have been unexpectedly set free, according to a local lawyer involved with setting up their defense," CBS News reports.

When he left for a semester abroad at The American University in Cairo last August, former Porter Ranch resident Derrik Sweeney was a 19-year-old Junior at Georgetown University studying Arabic and psychology with the aid of several scholarships. He had good looks, Summa Cum Laude grades and was taking calls from the FBI about possible internships.

Today, he’s being held by Egyptian authorities, accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at police from the roof of the American University.

Sweeney lived near Rinaldi Street in Porter Ranch until he was 11. He attended Castlebay Lane Elementary School and his older brother Josh went to .

Sweeney was arrested Monday night along with his roommate, 21-year-old Indiana University student Luke Gates and 19-year-old Drexel University student Gregory Porter during a massive protest in Tahrir Square. 

“I’ve talked to him once for 90 seconds,” said his mother, Joy Sweeney, in an interview with Chatsworth Patch from Jefferson City, MO. “It was brief, but it was a blessing just to hear his voice. I was so thrilled.”

The wave of protests across Egypt that began Saturday has left a reported 29 dead. Cairo protesters fear that the elections, currently scheduled for Monday, will be rife with fraud. They want the balloting postponed until after Egypt's military leaders hand over power to a civilian government.

Joy Sweeney told Chatsworth Patch, “He said, ‘In the beginning, they weren’t treating us very nicely.’ Those were his exact words. He said, ‘but then we stayed in a different place and then they finally fed us. [...] And then they took us to a different place that was a prison.’ I don’t know what the first place was. And then they brought them to the Attorney General’s office for questioning.”

Somewhere along the way the students were put in front of a camera crew. The footage shows the young men standing behind a table that displays their ID cards and several bottles of semi-translucent yellow liquid that Egyptian officials allege are homemade explosives. The government has also released footage of two Caucasian men wearing scarves as masks while attending a protest.

"A bag filled with empty bottles, a bottle of gasoline, a towel and a camera was found with them," said Adel Saeed,  a spokesman for the office of Egypt's general prosecutor, according to a CNN report.

Although he has a history of political involvement, volunteering both for Barrack Obama’s election campaign during high school and interning for Republican Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer between February and May of this year, Joy Sweeney says her son was learning about Egyptian culture, not attending the political protests in Cairo.

However, earlier the Associated Press reported: "He attended previous protests but stopped after a demonstration where dozens were killed, she said. He had assured his family the violence wasn't near him and he was safe."

Joy Sweeney told Chatsworth Patch that “He’s really demonstrated that, not only is he just going [to college] to be academic, he’s going there to be involved in his education.”

“And that’s kind of what his attitude was going abroad.”

“Curiosity, wanting to understand other people. You know, wanting to understand the culture -- yes. But anger -- no. […] He wanted to understand the process. He wanted to understand the plight of the people. He just wanted to understand it. He’d never been in a revolution before in his life, you know?”

Gates’ politics were less centrist than those of his roommate. His Twitter account features a series of updates like: “Earlier tonight rubber bullets a charge and then a retreat, my knee and elbow are f***** up,” “I am a world citizen. Can I renounce my US citizenship on Twitter? Haha” and “Honestly, hopefully I die here.”

Now, Derrik’s father, Kevin Sweeney, a computer consultant and his mother, the executive director of the Council for Drug Free Youth and owner of an art gallery, are facing the prospect of finding a lawyer to work the Egyptian legal system at a time when the Egyptian constitution is being rewritten.

“It’s been recommended to us by the State Department that, it might be a good idea that if they’re going to get charged, to have private representation,” said Joy Sweeney.

She hasn’t slept in almost two days because of stress, her husband is taking it hard too, but community support is strong, she said.

“We are just praying a lot and relying on the support and love and prayers of all the people,” she said. “We have had a tremendous outpouring of support from our community and all over the world. […] It was really great to be able to tell him about that when I talked to him this morning.”

The three young men were scheduled for arraignment at 10:30 this morning, Cairo time, but their court date has been pushed back four days, until after the scheduled election, while the state builds its case and the violent protests continue.

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