Amnesty: Egypt tortures, detains children

An international rights group says Egypt is committing “shocking violations” against children, including torture and enforced disappearances.

Amnesty International says it has documented at least six children, including a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old, who were tortured in custody, and 12 who were subjected to enforced disappearances since 2015. It did not give the ages of the other children.

Citing the children’s families, Amnesty says the six were “severely beaten, given electric shocks on their genitalia and other parts of their body or suspended by their limbs.” Some of the torture was aimed at forcing the children to confess to crimes they had not committed, it said in a joint report with the Egyptian Front for Human Rights.

Egypt has waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent since President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi led the military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013. Thousands of people have been jailed, with many held without charge or trial. Rights groups say torture is widespread in Egyptian detention facilities, allegations denied by the government.

A spokesman for Egypt’s Interior Ministry, which oversees police, did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

— AP