3 American students freed in Egypt

Three American college students arrested on suspicion of throwing Molotov cocktails during a protest in Cairo were released Thursday, a spokesman for the Egypt general prosecutor's office told CNN.

Joy Sweeney, whose son Derrik Sweeney is one of the three students, told CNN's "American Morning" she was overjoyed by the news.

"We are just so blessed and so grateful right now," she said. "I can't wait to give him a big hug."

The students were to be taken to a physician for a medical examination and back to the police station for paperwork to be processed, then to their dorm rooms, she said. They may be able to call home afterward.

The Egyptian attorney general is not going to appeal against the trio's release, she said.

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The family is keen for Derrik to return home as soon as possible, for his own safety, she added.

Roberto Powers, the U.S. consul general in Egypt, advised that as the three students' pictures had been plastered all over the media, "it wouldn't be safe or prudent for them to remain in the country," she said.

She said her son told her in a telephone call Wednesday that "they had done nothing wrong."

Sweeney, Gregory Porter and Luke Gates are students from different schools attending American University in Cairo on a semester-long, study-abroad program, according to the school.

Sweeney, 19, is a Georgetown University student from Jefferson City, Missouri; Porter, 19, from Glenside, Pennsylvania, attends Drexel University in Philadelphia; and Gates, 21, of Bloomington, Indiana, goes to Indiana University.

Their arrests came amid violent protests against Egypt's ruling military council in Cairo's Tahrir Square that had claimed dozens of lives by late Wednesday.

Drew Harper, a friend of the three students, told CNN some parts of the media had given an inaccurate impression of them as being irresponsible.

Harper, 22, a film student from New York who has been in Cairo for three months, described Sweeney, Porter and Gates as intelligent, well-informed and nonviolent.

"I don't believe for one second that those Molotov cocktails belonged to the boys," he said.

"These are not drunk college students looking for a thrill or boys hellbent on committing suicide in a blaze of glory."

He accused the Egyptian military of wanting to "pin the recent violence on foreigners" and said they had wrongly accused the three Americans.

Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia welcomed the news that Georgetown student Sweeney and his fellow Americans had been freed.

"Our entire Georgetown community is deeply grateful to all those whose prompt attention and work led to their release," DeGioia said in a statement.

A relative calm fell over Tahrir Square on Thursday as Egypt's military leaders apologized for the 38 deaths nationwide and vowed to prosecute offenders and pay the medical bills of those injured.

Some 3,250 people have been wounded, according to Hisham Sheeha of Egypt's Health Ministry.

Adil Saeed, spokesman from the prosecutor's office, said late Wednesday that a bag filled with empty bottles, a bottle of gasoline, a towel and a camera had been found with the three American students.

"They denied the bag belonged to them and said it belonged to two of their friends," Saeed said.

The latest clashes between protesters and police broke out Saturday near Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the movement that led to Hosni Mubarak's ouster as president in February.

Demonstrators are calling for the country's interim military rulers to step down immediately.

Soldiers erected barbed wire barricades to separate protesters and police early Thursday.

By the CNN Wire Staff

CNN's Mohamed Fahmy and journalist Ian Lee in Cairo, and Devon Sayers in Atlanta contributed to this report.