I løbet af det sidste år har egyptiske militærdomstole efterforsket eller retsforfulgt 43 børn. Børnene har ikke haft en forsvarer og ofte heller ikke haft forbindelse med deres familier før efter domfældelsen.
New York, 27. March 2012: Egypt’s military courts have investigated or tried at least 43 children over the past year, Human Rights Watch said today,including the pending trial of 13-year-old Ahmed Hamdy Abdel Aziz in connection with the Port Said football riots.
Children prosecuted in military courts have not had access to lawyers, and often to their families, until after military authorities have investigated and sentenced them.
Since coming to power in February 2011, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has referred over 12,000 civilians for prosecution by military courts before military judges, though these courts fail to meet minimum due process standards.
The Egyptian military should end all investigations and trials of children before military courts, Human Rights Watch said, and should release or transfer all those already convicted to the juvenile justice system.In particular, the military should immediately release Islam Harby, a 16-year-old boy who has served nearly a full year in an adult maximum-security prison after an unfair trial before a military court in March 2011, Human Rights Watch said.
“It’s bad enough that the SCAF is trying civilians in military courts, but to put Egyptian children through the military justice system is an even graver injustice,” said Priyanka Motaparthy, Middle East children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The military has brought children before military courts without even the most basic protections, like access to lawyers or their families. Even worse, authorities have abused them in detention.”
Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian activist group No Military Trials for Civilians have documented 43 cases of juveniles taken before military prosecutors and judges in the past year.
Some have remained in detention for up to a year, and at least six of the youths alleged that army or security officers had physically abused them. In addition to those investigated and prosecuted before military courts, children have also been prosecuted through Egypt’s adult criminal justice and state security courts, rather than before juvenile justice courts as required by Egyptian and international law.
The military should publicly release data on the cases of all civilians tried before military courts, including children, Human Rights Watch said. Parliament should amend the Code of Military Justice to prohibit military tribunals from trying children under any circumstances.
Among the cases reviewed by Human Rights Watch, a military court in April 2011 sentenced Mohammed Ehab, 17, to 15 years in Tora maximum-security prison, where he has remained for the past 11 months. Ehab was charged with breaking the military curfew and attacking security officers, his father told Human Rights Watch. Neither Ehab nor Harby have had lawyers until March 2012, their families said.
Læs mere her: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/27/egypt-children-trial
