Egypt: 135 children in prison

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The Baladi Centre for Rights and Freedoms have issued a report stating that 135 children are being held in Egyptian prisons and there are increasing fears for their lives due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. Detained children are distributed in penal institutions and some police stations, while the authorities detain a large number of minors in common cells with adults with criminal backgrounds.

The centre said that 49 of the detained children had been imprisoned on political issues, on charges of joining a terrorist group. According to a report issued by the centre in November 2019, 1,556 children were imprisoned, 198 were subjected to enforced disappearance and 192 were sentenced by a court ruling from 2013 to 2019.

Detained children were deprived of visits and communicating with their families, in addition to being kept in narrow and crowded places, denied necessary medical care, and not given adequate food and drink.