ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT: Child ‘raped with wooden stick by police officers’ must be released

17 Dec 2015

[International Secretariat]

Region: ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT

Topic:

Mazen Mohamed Abdallah’s family told the organization the teenager was repeatedly tortured in custody, given electric shocks on his genitals and had a wooden stick repeatedly thrust into his anus as police forced him to confess to protesting without authorization and belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

“The horrific alleged abuse gives a sickening insight into the widespread and routine use of torture and ill-treatment by Egyptian security forces in police stations,” said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

Mazen Mohamed Abdallah was seized by heavily armed security forces from his family’s Cairo home on 30 September 2015. Two national security officers blindfolded Mazen and told his mother they would take him away to ask two questions and then return him home.

Mazen said that after his arrest, he was interrogated about his membership of the Muslim Brotherhood, his participation in protests and the names of other protesters.

After denying the claims, Mazen described being repeatedly beaten, raped with a wooden stick and given electric shocks until he was willing to “confess” to “anything just to stop the torture”.

Mazen said the torture later intensified and that his anus was injured. National Security agents also warned he would be tortured further and his parents would be arrested if he retracted his “confession”.

The prosecutor charged Mazen with belonging to a banned group, protesting without authorization and printing flyers inciting protests. He was ordered to be detained for 15 days, thus violating Egypt’s Child Law which prohibits the pre-trial detention of children less than 15 years old. His detention has been repeatedly renewed and he has now been held for two months.

Amnesty International has documented a rise in reports of torture, cases of deaths in custody and enforced disappearances across Egypt since the appointment last March of Minister of Interior who comes from a national security background.

The Egyptian authorities must promptly launch an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into Mazen Mohamed Abdallah’s allegation that he was tortured by security forces.

“Mazen is accused of nothing more than the peaceful expression of views. Detaining a child of his age is illegal, he must be released immediately.”

11 December 2015
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE