Egypt Releases American Students Arrested For Alleged Firebombing

(The Blaze/AP)- The three American Students arrested for allegedly throwing firebombs at Egyptian security forces who were battling protesters in Tahrir Square have been released and will likely soon make their way home to the U.S.

Derrik Sweeney, Luke Gates and Gregory Porter (pictured above), who attend the American University in Cairo, were arrested on the roof of a university building near Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Sunday for allegedly throwing Molitov cocktails at police.

Attorney Ted Simon, who represents Porter, a 19-year-old student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said he is still waiting to find out if the students actually have been set free, though a court had ordered their release.

The Americans are being released despite a Tweet  from Luke Gates that, according to CBS News, appeared to confirm active participation in the protest, including the line "I feel so reckless." Also, as CBS reports,  Gates tweeted "wish the protests in New York looked like the ones in Tahrir."

The 21-year-old Gates is a student of Indiana University. On the same twitter account, he also apparently wrote of his desire to renounce his U.S. citizenship, though this tweet came in advance of U.S. Embassy efforts to procure his release:

Earlier Thursday, Egyptian officials said a court had ordered the students' release. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media. They did not say when the students would be released.

Joy Sweeney said she wasn't sure when her son, a student at Georgetown University, would be returning to their home in Jefferson City, Mo.

Asked what she thought her son would take away from his arrest, Sweeney said she thought he would make something useful of it.

"I'm sure that he'll put a life-lesson learning experience into a positive story," Sweeney said. "He's a writer, he will write about this experience."

You can watch video discussing the release of the students here, courtesy of CNN: