Barely
a couple of months had passed since the death of the child Omar
Salah by an Army recruit in the vicinity of the American Embassy in Cairo, a report
by the Egyptian Coalition of Children’s Rights (ECCR) confirmed the existence
of non-reassuring indicators in the course of the trial. In addition to
preventing the ECCR’s solicitors from following the investigations progress,
and obscuring the court hearing date (that they knew by coincidence), the court
drafted its accusations to the army recruit based on a suspicious forensic
report stating that the bullet that killed the martyr child was a non-lethal
bullet and not a real one.
Also the Popular Campaign for Protection of Children (Manadeel
Waraq) announced its uncertainty regarding military trial procedures. They demanded
that ECCR's solicitors and the media be allowed to follow up the course of the
trial, which its second hearing is being held on Sunday the 7th of April 2013.
Manadeel Waraq also confirms that the case of the
child martyr Omar Salah is neither the first nor the last that government
agencies collude to hide violations against children and minors. The campaign
has recently spotted a systematic approach to deliberately hide martyrs bodies inside
the morgue, whether they are children or adults. The latest incident being a
body of a child aged 8-10 yrs old, killed during clashes in Kasr El Nil on the
9th of March 2013 (video link attached).
Manadeel Waraq reiterates its insistence on exposing
the violations of various state institutions against children, and to continue to
cooperate with all other human rights organisations to prosecute those
responsible.
