Egypt releases eight Indonesians

CAIRO: Security authorities in Eqypt have released eight Indonesian religious students after finding no evidence of their involvement in terrorism.

The Al-Azhar University students had been detained for five days for questioning.

"This morning, they walked free as the authorities found no evidence with which to charge them," Nurwenda, an official at the Indonesian Embassy in Cairo, said on Sunday. He refused to provide more details regarding the arrests.

Antara sources said local police arrested the Indonesian students, three of them identified as Furkan, Masyhuri, and Syarif, at their rented house in the Helwan area, some 50 kilometers south of Cairo, on Wednesday morning.

During the arrests, the police seized a picture of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, books on radical Islamic thought and news clippings on radical groups.

Indonesian Ambassador Bachtiar Aly had earlier arranged for legal assistance to be provided to the students. -- Antara