This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 11, 2011 - The last of three American students to arrive home after a "scary" police detention in Egypt, Derrik Sweeney of Jefferson City was greeted by family and friends late Saturday at Lambert Airport and told journalists that he had been hit and threatened after being taken into custody in the midst of Cairo demonstrations.
Sweeney, 19, a junior at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., told The Associated Press that he was "not sure I was going to live" in the harrowing hours after being detained by police. He said he and the other two students -- both of whom returned home earlier Saturday -- had done nothing to hurt anyone, and denied initial claims by prosecutors that they had been on a rooftop near Tahrir Square with a backpack that contained gasoline-filled bottles.
Sweeney, who was in a semester-abroad program at the American University in Cairo, is a former intern in the office of U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth. His parents, Kevin and Joy Sweeney of Jefferson City, were at Lambert to greet him late Saturday, along with about 20 other relatives, friends and others.
The other two American students detained by Cairo police -- Gregory Porter, 19, from Glenside, Pa., who attends Drexel University in Philadelphia; and Luke Gates, 21, of Bloomington, Ind., who studies at Indiana University -- also returned home in separate flights earlier on Saturday. Initially, they had less to say than Sweeney about the Egypt ordeal.
In a statement released on Thanksgiving, Luetkemeyer thanked the U.S. State Department for its work in helping the students, who were detained by police earlier this week and shown on Egyptian television near gasoline-filled bottles that authorities claimed had been found in a backpack near them. The students denied knowledge of the Molotov cocktails, telling police that the backpack had belonged to Egyptian students.
After the intervention of lawyers and the U.S. Embassy's consular office, CNN reported Egyptian prosecutors announced Thursday that the students would be released. Authorities said they were released Friday and were headed home on separate commercial flights.
"I am extremely thankful that Derrik Sweeney is being released by Egyptian authorities along with the two other American students," Luetkemeyer said in his statement. "I am relieved for Derrik's family, who received a special Thanksgiving Day gift today."
The Missouri congressman said he "also would like to thank the State Department for their hard work on behalf of Derrik and the other two students."
U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., whose staff was in touch with Sweeney's family and the State Department this week, also issued a statement, saying he was "very pleased that Egyptian officials are releasing Missourian Derrik Sweeney and his fellow American students."
Family members said that Sweeney was allowed to use the U.S. consul general's telephone to call home on Wednesday. The student said he had done nothing wrong and had simply been watching the Tahrir Square demonstrations from the roof of a university building.
The Associated Press quoted his father, Kevin Sweeney, as saying that Derrik "was watching from the rooftop and said he was not throwing anything and the next thing you know, they were grabbed by the police forces and hustled off and basically made into a big public display."
The students were expected to return to the United States soon after their release, family members said, because U.S. consular officials advised then that it would be unsafe to stay in Egypt, which has been hit by mass demonstrations and political violence in protest of the nation's military regime.
Derrik Sweeney's mother, Joy, is a member of the Jefferson City school board. She told interviewers this week that her son was studying Arabic and psychology and "truly believes in solving problems peacefully."