American Student Arrested in Cairo Is Allowed to Call His Mother

What does an American student detained in Cairo tell his mom during that "one call home" arrested folks always get? He tells her that he's innocent, of course. Innocent, in this case, of throwing molotov cocktails during the new uprisings in Egypt, for which three study-aboard U.S. students in were arrested in Egypt's latest protests. Derrik Sweeney, one of the students, told his mother over the phone that he didn't do anything that would have justified his arrest, according to The Washington Post. “I said, ‘You didn’t do anything,’ and he said, ‘Of course not, mom,’ ” she said." The mother, Joy Sweeney, says that all three of the boys were able to make phone calls home, and that while her son told her they have been questioned and shuffled between prisons, he was well feed and "sounds okay." And in a CBS News video, she sounds like an ever forgiving matriarch: "I'm not mad at him, I just want him safe." But CBS points out that one of the other students, Luke Gates, may have tilted the boys' hand to Egyptian authorities on Twitter, writing on his now-defunct account: "we were throwing rocks and one guy accidentally threw his phone =(" The Post has a cache of his tweets here.

RELATED: The Egyptian Film Score Jay-Z Sampled for 'Big Pimpin'