1) Testimony of Amira – Mohamed G.’s Sister (16 years old)
The case of Mohamed G. was scheduled for the day before yesterday and she said that no lawyers were present with him during the interrogation, and that’s why his case was postponed indefinitely. Amira spoke of horrendous things that took place in her brother’s story, which includes the fact that he was on his way to AlKasr AlAiny Hospital to undergo surgery in his eye as he had visual problems, and he had with him all the papers and documentation that prove his health condition and his need for the surgery. Unfortunately, he was arrested, in addition to many other children.
Mohamed’s family kept searching for him for a long time until a lawyer called Sayed approached them and told them that Mohamed is at Kasr El Nile Police Station. He took his mother and eldest sister and asked them to pay EGP 200 so he can have him released. However, they refused at the time and wanted Mohamed to be released first. Consequently, Amira says that the lawyer told the Prosecutor that his mother and sister want to kill him, and in subsequence the Prosecutor held both the mother and sister in detention for about an hour until the lawyer left.
Mohamed was beaten, handcuffed, and had children with him that were 6 and 7 years of age.
2) Testimony of Adel M. – 14 years old
Adel was on Kasr El Nile Bridge when he was arrested. He was standing in the middle of the bridge between the protesters and the Central Security Forces. Most of those who were arrested were children, as approximately 28 children were arrested.
Central Security Forces dragged the children on the streets, beat them up, cussed them and slapped them on their faces repeatedly. Adel stood in the street for 2 hours being beaten and he had a laceration in his head.
No one at the police station had him transferred to an ambulance as it was clear that the laceration in his head needed stitches. Adel remained in the police station for 4 hours, bleeding, and they continued hitting him. He was detained for a day at the police station and then he was transferred to Abdeen Prosecution Office, and I don’t know if it was a specialized prosecution for juvenile cases or not. The Prosecution Office had him transferred to Forensic Medicine and no treatment was prescribed for him, despite the clear injury in his head. They then had him transferred to ElKhalifa Police Station where he remained for 2 days with adults. At this police station, they used to open the cell at midnight and hit those detained. As for food, people working in the field of human rights are the ones who brought food to Adel and others detained, which comprised of bread and cheese, and they are the ones who managed to have food and blankets delivered to those detained. Adel was released with the help of lawyers and we brought his birth certificate.
He was arrested for 4 days and I didn’t know anything about him or where he was detained for more than 24 hours. The next day a Secretary Police Officer allowed the kid to call us and tell us where he was.
3) Testimony of Mohamed F. – 12 yeard old
Mohamed is 12 years old and he was arrested on the 3rd of February 2013. He was accompanied by his friend, and on his way to his aunt at Tahrir square, as she works at the Ministry of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs. The soldiers who were dressed in civilian clothes arrested him and his friend on the Corniche, close to Kasr ElNile Bridge. When they were on their way to his aunt, people were running on the bridge and so they started running with them, and when Mohamed fell on the ground they arrested him (and his friend).
When they arrested him they beat him with batons and took him and other children to Kasr ElNile Police Station. They were then deported to the Prosecution Office and then to the Gabal Ahmar Central Security Police Camp, where they beat them, placed them in barrels filled with water, and electrocuted them. His back was filled with burn marks due to electrocution for which he was not treated, and there were obvious bruises and markings of severe beating on his hand and legs, and his hand was so swollen that he couldn’t clench his fist for more than a week, his head was swollen and I took him for treatment when he was released.
The number of children arrested amounted to 25, from which only one was 19 years old, and they were all handcuffed.
He was specifically arrested on Sunday, February 3rd, 2013, and I knew on Monday by sheer coincidence that they had undergone interrogation at the Prosecution Office and stated they they will spend the night at Kasr ElNile Police Station. I went at that time to bring him food and when I returned I found out that they had been deported to Gabal Ahmar Central Security Police Camp. The lawyers there had Mohamed released based on me bring his guarantor and there are other children who were released after having bail set at EGP500.
4) Testimony of Mohamed A. – 17 years old
On January 29, 2013, at 8:00 p.m., in Sayeda Zeinab area in Kasr AlAiny St., Mohamed was purchasing a laser pointer. There was soldiers dressed in civilian clothes in a tourist bus, and one of them asked Mohamed where he was going, and he stated that he was going home, but the soldier replied telling him that he isn’t, and that he was planning on going to the other side with the laser pointer.
How did you know he was arrested? I was calling him at 8:00 p.m. and someone answered his mobile phone telling me that he found it in Tahrir. His sister wanted to go to get his mobile phone, but the man who answered the phone replied: “Come where?! Guns are being fired here” and he hung up.
Mohamed hadn’t returned home until the next day, so I went to look for him in hospitals, police stations and prosecution offices until Saturday (February 2nd), and he was interrogated with during the evening shift of the Prosecution Office, and they informed me after I had submitted a report to the Attorney General.
The police officer had taken from him his mobile phone and EGP100 and took his ID, and broke it, but there was a police secretary officer who was a good man and said that Mohamed didn’t do anything, and prevented him from getting beaten. They placed him in a van where he spent the night, and they had collected other children who spent the ight in the van as well. They had sprayed pirosol (insecticide) where little children were present, and as a result, several had fainted. They were all very young (25 children) and they had a 15 year-old kid with them, who they had threw from the 2nd floor of some hotel or building after they had chased him, and both his legs were broken. He couldn’t sleep from the pain and when they requested medication for him, the y always replied that there is no treatment or medicine for them. There was also a blind child with them in the van and the Police Officer asked him: “Can’t you see me?”, so the child responded: “I can’t see you”, so the Police Officer told him: “Okay, go inside”, and so the child had slammed himself against the van wall (Most probably this is the child, Mohamed Gomaa Ahmed, who was going to undergo surgery in his eye at Kasr AlAiny Hospital, and I obtained his testimony from his sister).
The children spent the night without food and they kept banging the walls of the van.
