The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) calls on Public Prosecutor Mohamed Shawky to release both M.M. and A.M. and investigate their illegal detention that has been ongoing for more than a year at Dar al-Salam police station.

The two children were arrested in March 2024, along with four other adults, for writing pro-Palestine graffiti on Dar al-Salam bridge in Cairo. The six were questioned in connection with Case No. 952 of 2024 (Supreme State Security Investigations), and charged with joining a terrorist group, spreading false news "that would harm security and public order," and using a social media account for this purpose.

A security force of ten arrested M.M. (born in December 2007) from his home on 8 March 2024, and seized his mobile phone, a laptop, a flag of Palestine and a few drawings made by the child himself. M.M.'s mother knew nothing about her son after he was illegally arrested and forcibly disappeared for almost two weeks. A.M., a student at a hotel (hospitality) high school who turned 18 last January while in detention, had been arrested on the same day of M.M’s arrest. Although he had a broken leg at the time of arrest, the security force carried him and informed his family that he would be released an hour later. The security force seized his mobile phone and copied all the pictures of Al-Ahly Club, that he is a fan of, that were in his possession. His family could not communicate with him until he appeared before the Supreme State Security Prosecution about two weeks later.

Both minors have been held in a cell with adults accused in criminal cases, such as cases relating to drug offences. Therefore, both are denied exercise, sun exposure, and family visits as is usually the case for detainees in police stations. As police stations do not usually provide daily meals for detainees like prisons and childcare homes, M.M. and A.M. get food from their families, but the food they get is often inadequate. While M.M. was able to take his exams while being accompanied by a security force at a school near the Dar al-Salam police station, A.M. could not take his exams due to the school principal's refusal. What both defendants were exposed to at the police station over the past year falls under the crime of endangering children or exposing them to harm under Article 96 of the Egyptian Child Law.

On 19 March, the Public Prosecution announced in an official statement that after 244 visits to children's care and rehabilitation centers, it has ascertained that the children placed in such facilities receive due care. The Public Prosecution also said that it had come up with a number of conclusions and recommendations, the most prominent of which was the directive to enroll children in various stages of education and to enhance the healthcare provided to them. EIPR backs the Public Prosecution’s recommendations, while calling for a proper inventory of the children detained at police stations to ensure that they also receive due care, and as a step towards their release from detention especially since there is no justification for holding children in pretrial detention for plonged periods of time. Additionally, police stations are not qualified for the care and rehabilitation of children and cannot be considered a suitable facility for detaining children for any length of time..

M.M and A.M. continue to be held in pretrial detention along with 127 others who have been remanded in various police stations and prisons, on charges of terrorism for voicing support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the face of the Israeli genocidal warfare documented by international organizations, including the UN. None of those detainees was arrested while committing an act of violence or faced with any piece of evidence that could link them to any suspected or alleged commission of a terrorist act, in accordance with Egyptian law. Moreover, there is no legal justification that requires a precautionary measure, such as pretrial detention - and for such prolonged periods of time - against any of those defendants since their places of residence are known.

EIPR stresses the need for the Egyptian authorities to guarantee and protect the constitutional and legal right of all Egyptians to express their political views peacefully, whether by declaring solidarity with the Palestinian people or denouncing Israeli war crimes and its genocidal war on Gaza. EIPR renews its call for the immediate release of all defendants who were arbitrarily detained for expressing their support for Palestine, and for dropping all charges against them.