Egyptian lawyer Ahmed Helmy revealed details of the cases his office received that bear the name “Third Preparatory Organization”.
Helmy posted a picture of the case file on his Facebook page, commenting: “Good day, sir. I wanted to give you an idea about the latest case that entered our office this month, which is the case of the third preparatory students’ organization.”
He added: “The person accused of founding and leading the organization is a student in the third year of middle school, while the oldest of the other defendants is 19 years old, the youngest is 15 years old, and the rest of the defendants are 16 years old.”
Helmy mocked the accusations in the case and wrote: “The defendants used to meet during games class to discuss Takfiri ideas based on declaring the ruler an infidel and targeting members of the army and police, and I do not mean the school police.”
Independent human rights organizations criticize the charging of minors with terrorism. Late last year, a juvenile court in Banha sentenced two children to ten years in prison on “terrorism” charges, based on their digital activity.
The case, which was numbered (4240 of 2024), included two defendants who were under 18 years old at the time of their arrest.
Although the case does not include any adult defendants, both were transferred from their place of residence to New Cairo and were brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution as adults instead of the Juvenile Prosecution, which deprived them during the investigation period of all the guarantees of protection for child defendants guaranteed by the Egyptian Child Law.
The Supreme State Security Prosecution accused the first child of founding and leading a terrorist group, and accused the second child of joining a terrorist group, while both children were accused of financing this group and participating in a criminal agreement to commit a terrorist crime.
Tags:
asiawest
