Ahmed Mansour Karni, a
4-year old child, will be spending the rest of his life in prison
following a court ruling in western Cairo on Tuesday. The little boy was
convicted in absentia for several charges, including murder, reports Ventures Africa.
Read: Read: Pregnant woman dies mid-air aboard an Arik Air flight from Port Harcourt to Lagos.
Going by the timeline of
events that led to the alleged crimes the youngster is being convicted
for, Karni was about 2-years old at the time, as they occurred two years
ago during the riots and demonstrations of January 3 2014. But his name
was on a list of over a hundred people “wanted” for murder, disturbance
of the peace and damaging state property.
Prior to the ruling, a
defense attorney, Faisal al-Saud, who said that Karni’s name ended on
the list by mistake, presented the child’s birth certificate to the
court, but it appears the material was not transferred and that the
presiding judge did not review the case. “The child, Ahmed Mansour
Karni’s birth certificate was presented after state security forces
added his name to the list of accused, but then the case was transferred
to the military court and the child was sentenced in absentia in an
ensuing court hearing,” said the lawyer.
Although Karni’s birth
certificate proves that he was born in September 2012, the court
indictment states that the child is guilty of murder – four counts,
attempted murder – eight counts, threatening security forces and
vandalizing property belonging to the Egyptian Health Administration and
vehicles belonging to security forces.
How can a two-year old commit these crimes?
In response to Karni’s
ruling, Egyptians took to social media blasting the government and the
clearly dysfunctional legal system, accusing them of corruption and
injustice. An angry Egyptian lawyer, Mohammed Abu Huraira, said that the
court decisions can’t be appealed; he issued a response to the
ridiculous judgement saying, “On the eve of injustice and madness in
Egypt, a four-year old child was sentenced to life imprisonment.
He is accused of
disturbance, damage to property and murder. The Egyptian scales of
justice are not reversible. There is no justice in Egypt. No reason.
Logic committed suicide a while ago. Egypt went crazy. Egypt is ruled by
a bunch of lunatics.”
A history of unfair trials
When former army chief,
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, was elected president in 2014, he made a pledge to
the UN General Assembly to uphold judicial independence, freedom of
expression, and the rule of law but, in practice, el-Sisi has failed to
walk the walk.
Instead, his government
extended the jurisdiction of military courts to try civilians and gave
room for human rights violations by security forces.
According to Amnesty
International, the Egyptian judicial system is deeply flawed. Mansour
Karni is not the first child to receive such an unfair and unjust
judgement, courts throughout Egypt sentence children to life
imprisonment and even death in contravention of both international and
Egyptian law.
Hundreds of activists
have also been sentenced to death after unfair trials on false charges.
Judges fail to follow due judicial processes, as in the case of little
Ahmed Mansour Karni, with some trials proceeding in the absence of the
defendants and their lawyers. “In many cases, courts convicted
defendants despite an absence of substantive evidence against them.
The Public Prosecution,
increasingly, did not seek to determine individual criminal
responsibility, instead bringing identical charges against groups of
accused and relied heavily on reports and testimonies by police and
security forces…”
#FOC report
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