American Exchange Student Killed During Egyptian Riots

andrew-pochter-washingtonpost

American exchange student to Egypt Andrew Driscoll Pochter, a student at Kenyon College in Ohio and in Egypt as part of the Amideast exchange program, was fatally stabbed during a protest in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. Pochter was not a protester but an innocent bystander and a victim of a senseless crime in a country that has known violence and upheaval for many months since the fall of the Mubarak regime. Security officials in Egypt have made arrests in connection with Andrew Pocther’s killing but have not disclosed the identities of the suspects nor the number of suspects arrested.

Pochter was entering his junior year at Kenyon College and had traveled throughout the Middle East to both improve his Arabic as well as gain a deeper understanding of the political issues in the region. “He went to Egypt because he cared profoundly about the Middle East, and he planned to live and work there in the pursuit of peace and understanding,” the family said in a statement.

Andrew Pocther contributed an article to Al-Arabiya, The Acquisition of Reality, that described his Moroccan host family’s political activism in light of the changed social situation post-Arab Spring.

Demagaga sends its condolences to Andrew Pocther’s family and friends.

[The New York Times]