UN lists 3,200 children arrested in Egypt since 2013 coup

MEMO – July 25, 2015

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has said in a report that the arbitrary detention of minors by the Egyptian regime is “systematic and widespread.” Rassd.com published the findings of the report on Friday.

According to the working group, 3,200 children have been arrested since the end of June 2013, when the military carried out a coup against the first ever freely-elected Egyptian President, Mohamed Morsi. The UN claims that minors have been tortured inside state detention centres. Around 800 are still in prison, it reports, 200 of whom are in the Central Security Camp in Banha, north of Cairo.

“These minors are subject to ill treatment, including physical torture and sexual violence,” the report points out. “They are prevented from having any visits.”

The working group called on the Egyptian authorities to release all of the detained minors and compensate them proportionally for the harm they have suffered.

The report was produced following a complaint to the UN Working Group by Al-Karama, a Geneva-based, independent human rights organisation.