14-year-old arrested again after testifying to torture at CSF camp

Fourteen-year-old Akram al-Sawy was detained in the early hours of Tuesday along with his father, following testimony he gave on torture at a Central Security Forces camp in Banha, according to Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence.

Sawy had been held at the camp since last September and was only released from the camp on January 8.

Following his release, Sawy gave testimony on his incarceration, detailing torture and abuse that he and other children were subjected to since they were arrested and during their time at the camp.

Sawy said he was arrested from his home on September 22 when police mistakenly thought that he was at a protest with his friends. Sawy said that he and his friends were actually at a private lesson.

According to his testimony, he spent two days at the police station where he and his friends were severely beaten, kicked and electrocuted before they were moved to the Banha camp, which he said holds 200 detainees, the oldest of whom is 20 years old and youngest of whom is 13 years old.

Sawy said the cell holds 25 detainees, who weren’t allowed to leave the cell unless they were being taken to prosecution. He added they weren’t allowed visitations, but their families were allowed to send blankets for them. 

In the same testimony published by Nadeem, Sawy’s father, Ibrahim Mohamed al-Sawy, said he and his son were also beaten at State Security headquarters when he went to pick him up after his release. He said he and his son were blindfolded, handcuffed and beaten. He said he is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and that they wouldn’t let them leave until he said that Mohamed Morsi is not returning.

The Nadeem Center reported the incarceration of 600 children between the ages of 14 and 17 in a Central Security Forces camp in Banha.

The Interior Ministry, however, continues to deny that this camp exists in the first place.

Independent rights group “Free the Children” claims that at least 1,000 minors have been detained in Egypt’s prisons over the last year and a half. Marwa Arafa, the group’s coordinator, says most of these minors have been randomly arrested during clashes between protesters and police across the country.