The 15-year-old brother of a nine-year-old who is due to face military court in Fayoum has been arrested during a raid on their family home, his uncle and a member from a legal support group told Daily News Egypt.
The minor, who Daily News Egypt will not name, is now detained alongside his father, who is charged with attacking security forces and damaging electricity transformers in the Upper Egypt city.
The police raided the family house Thursday and took the boy without disclosing where he was taken or on what charges he faces, according to the boy’s uncle Abu Abeeda, and a member of the campaigning and legal support group “No To Military Trials”.
Abu Abeeda told Daily News Egypt that the family tracked the boy down to Al-Noras police station, North of Fayoum. He continued that the lawyer Omar Abdallah is “lost” due to the lack of charges, and is unaware of how to progress with the case and whether he will be included on the charges against his father and sibling.
The lawyer was unavailable for comment.
The police have so far not arrested the nine-year-old boy, who remains on the same charges as his father that will see him face military court. A spokesperson at the Ministry of Interior said they were so far unaware of the case.
The father of the two boys, Magdy Mohamed Talib, was arrested on 16 January. His brother Abu Abeeda told Daily News Egypt that Talib and his family are “being targeted because he was involved with the Freedom and Justice Party”, referring to the political wing of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Talib’s nine-year-old son was included on the charges, his brother continued, “to get at Talib… we expect them to come soon to arrest the son”.
Since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, the Brotherhood has faced a ban on all of its activities, mass sentences on its members and the seizure of associated funds, properties and organisations. On Saturday, a court sentenced four Brotherhood members to death and 14 to life in prison, including Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and his deputy Khairat El-Shater. On Monday, Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali dissolved 169 NGOs affiliated with the movement, the latest in a long line of such moves.
There is thought to be 167 members of the 2012 parliament in prison, the majority of whom are Islamist and were arrested following the 2013 regime change. During the same period, WikiThawra, an independent statistics body funded by the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR), puts the numbers of individuals arrested on political charges at 40,000.
