Update: Security forces arrest orphanage director implicated in child abuse

Security forces have arrested the manager of a Giza orphanage implicated in a child abuse case after a video showing him brutally beating children circulated widely on social media, the state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Monday.

The authorities moved quickly on the case after Giza Governor Ali Abdel Rahman ordered the dissolution of the orphanage’s administration following the release of the video.

Preliminary investigations indicated that the footage was purportedly shot by the manager’s wife one year ago. The suspect's wife reportedly said that she uploaded the video herself to expose her husband due to his repeated abuse of children, but claimed that the video was shot two months ago.

The authorities have so far located only one of the three children in the video, according to the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA).

Children at the orphanage have testified that the suspect repeatedly subjected them to inhumane punishments, severe beatings and even torture.

Forensic examinations confirmed that the children’s bodies bore various marks of violence that corroborated their testimony.

The two-minute video showed the man pulling children one by one and beating them on their hands and backs with a large wooden stick, then kicking them across the room.

The children are heard crying and pleading with him, calling him “daddy” and promising “never to do it again.”

A Facebook user called Mohamed Farid, who first uploaded the video on his Facebook account, identified the man as the head of the Mekka al-Mokarrama orphanage on Haram Street.

In his post, Farid says the children were allegedly being punished for watching television.

In a phone-in interview on Mehwar Channel’s 90 Minutes talk show Sunday, Abdel Rahman said that the orphanage houses 13 children, 10 boys and three girls, and that a temporary committee has been formed to run it until an official decision is issued to either shut it down or change its administration. 

Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali vowed to put the orphanage manager behind bars once the footage was verified.

In a phone-in on the same talk show, Wali said that a committee from the ministry visited the orphanage on Sunday to move the children to another facility, but discovered that they were not the children in the video.

The Egyptian Coalition for Children’s Rights filed a complaint with the general prosecutor against the suspect.

Nelly Ali, a children’s rights activist and member of the Popular Campaign for the Rights of the Child, told Mada Masr that such incidents are very common.

“Whenever a case comes to our attention a case is filed immediately for investigation,” she said.

Raising the issue and filing complaints with the general prosecutor usually results in the removal of children from offenders’ care, Ali continued, and offenders are not allowed to return to childcare.

According to Ali, the children will be moved to be under the care of the Egyptian FACE for Children in Need.