According to the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), security forces in Egypt make children and young people arrested disappear and tortured.
In a report published today, HRW and the Egyptian children’s rights organization Belady document 20 cases in which children and adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age were exposed to brutal methods. Judges and lawyers would „turn a blind eye“ to the abuse. Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, torture had reached a „gross“ level.
Reports of waterboarding and electric shocks
Children reported waterboarding – the simulated drowning – and „electric shocks to tongues and genitals,“ said HRW child rights activist Bill Van Esveld. Children reported torture in 15 of the 20 documented cases.
In two cases, security forces tied their arms behind their backs and hung them on their arms. A 17-year-old reported how he was spit in the mouth during an interrogation.
Arbitrary arrests
The Egyptian police, the secret service and officers of the military are responsible, the authors write. All 20 children and adolescents were arrested arbitrarily and without a warrant. After their arrest, some of them disappeared for weeks or months without the parents being informed of their whereabouts and condition. Three children were put in solitary confinement, and three other victims were not allowed to visit relatives for more than a year.
Al-Sisi has been working hardest against critics since taking power in 2013. Tens of thousands have been estimated to have been arrested and sentenced by human rights defenders, many of them in mass trials. „Hundreds of children“ were arbitrarily arrested, ill-treated and tortured, according to the new HRW report. In 2017, the UN Committee against Torture came to the “inevitable conclusion that torture is common practice in Egypt”.
