The Abbaseya Court handed 3-year and 15-year prison sentences to two minors on Wednesday, a friend of the minors told Daily News Egypt.
The Court sentenced the 15-year-old Nour Zyad to 15 years imprisonment, and 13-year-old Ossama Reda to three years in prison.
According to the minors’ friend, Khaled Rashad, the high-school students were taken from their homes at the beginning of the academic year. They were held in a National Security unit for a week, during which their families did not know their whereabouts.
The two are accused of protesting without a permit, of setting fire to a police officer’s car, and of possessing explosives in their homes without a permit.
According to Rashad, Reda’s father died during the security forces’ violent dispersal of the Raba’a Al-Adaweya sit-in in 2013, while Zyad’s father is sentenced to five years in prison.
Last November, an Alexandria misdemeanour court sentenced 78 minors to 13 and 17 years of jail time for allegedly belonging to the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Human Rights Watch released a statement last March identifying “serious violations by authorities” against minors in Egypt.
The statement added that minors face assault by guards and other inmates. They are commonly held in adult detention facilities and makeshift locations, despite the unconstitutionality of doing so.
According to human rights group ‘Free the Children’, security forces have detained at least 1,000 minors over the past year and a half. Minors as young as 11-years-old are arbitrarily arrested during clashes between protestors and police.
“They were really known among all our friends for their kindness, and despite all the torture and pain they saw in prison they never thought to bring up any of their friend’s names in any false testimonies,” Rashad said.
