The Egyptian security forces arbitrarily arrest children on political charges and torture them in prisons, an international rights watchdog said on Monday, urging the West to halt security cooperation with the Arab republic until the latter stopped the alleged practice
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd March, 2020) The Egyptian security forces arbitrarily arrest children on political charges and torture them in prisons, an international rights watchdog said on Monday, urging the West to halt security cooperation with the Arab republic until the latter stopped the alleged practice.
In a 43-page report "'No One Cared He Was A Child': Egyptian Security Forces' Abuse of Children in Detention," Human Rights Watch (HRW) and rights group Belady detail abuses against 20 children aged between 12 and 17 in Egyptian prisons. The report says that 15 of them were "tortured in pretrial detention, usually during interrogation while held incommunicado." Some of them were tortured with electricity, including with stun guns, the NGOs allege. Another child was "badly beaten by prison guards."
"Children are describing being waterboarded and electrocuted on their tongues and genitals, and yet Egypt's security forces are facing no consequences. Governments that want to end these horrors should end support to Egyptian security services and condition any future agreements on there being real reforms," Bill Van Esveld, the associate children's rights director at HRW, said.
The NGOs argue that abuses against children and adult prisoners have become "typical" tactics for alleged political or security offenses since 2014, which is when President Abdel Fattah Sisi came to power.
The report insisted that security officers at times had forcibly disappeared children for up to 13 months and held them without trial, and one child had even been sentenced to death in breach of international law.
"Three were placed in solitary confinement, and three were denied any family visits for more than a year in detention," HRW added.
The NGOs urged the West, especially the United States, France and other EU nations, to stop providing support to the Egyptian security forces until the country ended the alleged practice and brought those responsible to justice.
