In a bizarre ruling a four-year-old boy has been sentenced to life in prison for committing four ‘murders’ when he was only one year old.
Egyptian boy Ahmed Mansour Karmi was convicted of four counts of murder, eight of attempted murder, vandalising property and threatening police officers.
The child’s name is believed to be included on a list of 115 defendants who were all given simultaneous life sentences at a Cairo court for crimes committed in early 2014.
Ahmed’s defence lawyer, Faisal al-Sayd, said his client’s name was on the list by mistake and the court did not give Ahmed’s birth certificate to the judge to show that he was born in September 2012.
Mr Faisal al-Sayd told the Jerusalem Post: “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.”
Adding: “This proves that the judge did not read the case.”
Another Egyptian lawyer Mohammed Abu Hurira said the case showed that the ‘Egyptian scales of justice are not reversible’ and that ‘Egypt is ruled by a bunch of lunatics.’
The ludicrous ruling comes as no surprise to many of Egypt’s critics.
Egypt has been ruled by a military dictatorship under President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi since 2013 and many have criticised the current judicial system after witnessing judges routinely dolling out harsh sentences against not only outspoken government critics but to anyone observed as a menace to the dominant regime including activists, human rights advocates, civil society workers, journalists, trade unionists, students, street children and the LGBT community who have all been besieged.
The four-year-old was not in court on Tuesday 16 February when he was sentenced.
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